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Zim bans 'unlawful hoarding'

News24

03/03/2008 17:38 -
(SA)

Harare - Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe's government has
made it illegal to possess more than Zim$500m in cash, it emerged Monday
-the equivalent of 21 US dollars.

According to a new regulation
published last month, anyone found with more than Zim$500m in cash will be
guilty of "unlawful hoarding".

Officially Zim$500m is worth around US$16
000. But it equates to only around US$21 on the dominant parallel market
rates for foreign exchange.

It is also illegal for companies to settle
any bills for more than US$250m (just over US$10) in cash. That means it is
now technically illegal for traders to pay for 10 litres of fuel in
cash.

The new regulation has been published under the Bank Use Promotion
and Suppression of Money Laundering Act.

The authorities want to
maintain a tight grip on the cash in circulation. Central bank governor
Gideon Gono last December blamed what he called "cash barons" for creating
cash shortages and pushing up annual inflation, now more than 100
000%.

The authorities want to encourage use of cheques and cards. But
power cuts mean it?s often impossible to settle bills by electronic transfer
of funds.

Many schools and supermarkets do not want bills settled by
cheque because of roaring inflation rates. In the five or so days cheques
take to clear, traders stand to lose a significant amount of
money.

EU says Zimbabwe poll must reflect people's will

LUSAKA, March 3 (Reuters) -
Europe wants to see an election result that reflects the will of Zimbabweans
in a March 29 poll, European Union trade chief Peter Mandelson said on
Monday.

But he said in the Zambian capital Lusaka it was not up to the EU
to dictate what the result should be.

Veteran Zimbabwean President
Robert Mugabe is facing a challenge in the presidential election from his
former finance minister Simba Makoni, who is standing as an independent
after being expelled from the ruling ZANU-PF party.

Morgan
Tsvangirai, a long time rival from the main opposition Movement for
Democratic Change (MDC), will also contest the election.

"The EU
wants an election that will produce the result that the (Zimbabwean) public
wants and the people need. It's not for me or anyone else in the EU to say
what the result should be, but it needs to be one that reflects the genuine
will and mandate of the Zimbabwean people," Mandelson said.

"Above all,
we want the people of Zimbabwe to win politically, economically and socially
because that's at stake," he told a news conference following a meeting with
ministers from east and southern Africa to discuss trade
issues.

Millions of Zimbabweans hoping for an end to a decade long
economic crisis are due to vote in presidential, parliamentary and municipal
elections described by Mugabe and his opponents as a landmark poll in the
post-independence period.

Mugabe, in power since independence from
Britain in 1980, says the vote will silence the opposition and shame Western
critics who accuse him of rights abuse.

Mugabe rejects blame for
daily hardships marked by the world's highest inflation rate of over 100,000
percent, high unemployment and food, fuel and foreign currency
shortages.

He says Western powers working with the opposition have
sabotaged the economy in retaliation for his policy of seizing white-owned
commercial farms to resettle landless blacks. (Writing By Shapi Shacindal;
Editing by Elizabeth Piper)

Mujuru was quoted by the state-owned Herald newspaper
on Monday as saying at a rally: "Firstly, you should vote for Comrade
Mugabe, our presidential candidate, then ZANU-PF (the ruling Zimbabwe
African National Union - Patriotic Front) councillors, MPs and
senators."You should vote for ZANU-PF."

Mugabe, in power since
Zimbabwe's independence in 1980, is facing a challenge from former finance
minister Makoni whose campaign got a boost at the weekend when ruling party
heavyweights including two former cabinet ministers publicly endorsed
him.

Since Makoni announced early February he was challenging Mugabe for
the presidency at a general election on March 29, there has been widespread
speculation he enjoyed the tacit support of Mujuru as well as her
influential husband Solomon Mujuru, a former head of the armed
forces.

Joyce Mujuru was at one stage seen as Mugabe's chosen successor
before the 84-year-old decided to seek another term in office.

Before
declaring his candidacy, Makoni had been a member of ZANU-PF's politburo and
has since claimed that he has the backing of many disillusioned party cadres
in a country where annual inflation is now over 100,000
percent.

Zimbabwe's ruling ZANU-PF chairman: party upheavals
a "non-event"

Harare - The chairman of
Zimbabwe's ruling party under President Robert Mugabe says upheavals in
ZANU-PF marked by the defection of senior politicians are a 'non-event,'
state radio reported Monday.

John Nkomo's comments came after Dumiso
Dabengwa, a ZANU-PF politburo member and veteran nationalist, announced that
he would back ex-finance minister Simba Makoni's bid for the presidency on
March 29.

Other key former ZANU-PF personalities who have joined Makoni,
include one-time cabinet minister Edgar Tekere, former parliamentary speaker
Cyril Ndebele and former education minister Fay Chung.

'There is
nothing alarming about the existence of pro-Makoni rebels within the party
as all previous opposition formations have come out of the ruling party,'
the radio quoted Nkomo as saying.

Makoni, also a longstanding member of
Mugabe's politburo, made the shock announcement in February that he would
challenge the 84-year- old leader's 28-year old hold on power.

Makoni
was immediately expelled from ZANU-PF. An angry Mugabe, who launched his own
election campaign on Friday, labelled Makoni an opportunist and a 'political
prostitute.'

In comments to reporters in Bulawayo, Nkomo said ZANU-PF
rebels were 'sell-outs.' But, he said, their existence showed there was
democracy in Zimbabwe and the ruling party, said the radio
report.

For the first time in Zimbabwe's history, the March 29 polls will
see Zimbabweans voting for parliamentarians, local councillors and a
president in one day.

Analysts predict there will be widespread
confusion - there are nearly 1,000 candidates for the upper and lower houses
of parliament alone.

Makoni will also be standing against main opposition
leader Morgan Tsvangirai of the larger of two factions of the Movement for
Democratic Change (MDC), who lost to Mugabe by less than 500,000 votes in
the last polls.

Zim election to be peaceful, say cops

Harare - Police in Zimbabwe are on alert but do not
anticipate "ugly scenes of political violence" in March's make-or-break
polls, a senior police officer has said, according to reports on
Monday.

Senior Assistant Commissioner Josephine Shambare said that
the Zimbabwe Republic Police (ZRP) would not tolerate any disturbances in
the March 29 presidential, parliamentary and local government
polls.

Shambare is the officer commanding the Police Support Unit,
a paramilitary police team instantly recognisable by its black boots and
navy-blue uniforms, usually brought out to deal with street
disturbances.

"Although we do not anticipate any ugly scenes of
political violence, the Support Unit will remain vigilant, alert and ready
to decisively deal with any eventualities," she
said.

"We encourage the electorate and
contesting political parties to remain peaceful during their campaigns and
on the election day when people will be exercising their democratic right to
vote," Shambare added, in comments carried by the official Herald daily on
Monday.

Tensions have been rising ahead of the polls, which pit
longtime president Robert Mugabe and his ruling ZANU-PF against the Morgan
Tsvangirai-led opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC), and the
former finance minister Simba Makoni who has several independent
backers.

Senior members of the ruling party are apparently furious
with officials who have pledged allegiance to Makoni, 57. There has also
been backbiting within the ranks of the MDC, with a breakaway faction of the
party slamming trade unionist-turned-politician Tsvangirai.

Analysts predict widespread confusion for Zimbabwean voters, who have known
only Mugabe as leader for 28 years.

There is widespread weariness
with Zimbabwe's economic problems among all but the wealthy and
well-connected elite. Inflation is running at more than 100 000 percent and
there are shortages of basics like fuel, milk and cooking oil.

Bread sold for Z$6-million a loaf in some shops Monday, up from 4.5 million
last week.

Cut off the dead hand of a tyrant

The Australian

David Coltart
| March 04, 2008

THINK of Zimbabwe and you may have a vision of the
majestic Victoria Falls, the breathtaking eastern highlands or the animals
of the Hwange.

But the more realistic image of Zimbabwe today is of
dictator Robert Mugabe and the swollen, beaten faces of opposition leaders
and supporters who dared to attend a peaceful democracy gathering last March
and were nearly killed for it.

Elections scheduled for March 29 are
not likely to change this scene, despite the outward trappings of a
democratic process.

The fact the elections are called for March 29 gives
a clue as to the absurdity of Mugabe's attempt to legitimise his brutal
dictatorship. This date gives opposition parties scant time to organise and
rally their forces, a task already made almost impossible due to crackdowns
on media freedom and on public gatherings.

To add crushing insult to
considerable injury, the regime in the past few weeks has begun detaining
opposition leaders and supporters across the country for acts that in
democracies would be normal campaigning activities. This week, the police
have banned door-to-door campaigning and political meetings held in the
evening. Yet those of us in the opposition movement take some heart from
these tactics. They confirm to us and to the world that Mugabe knows if free
and fair elections were allowed, he would lose.

Should he win the March
election, it will confirm an election, again, has been shockingly
rigged.

This should come as no surprise, not even to Mugabe. Subverting
his heroic role in gaining independence for Zimbabwe, then known as
Rhodesia, in 1980, he has become the most significant force holding Zimbabwe
back from the political and economic gains that are its right.

In the
years following independence, Zimbabwe had the second largest economy south
of the Sahara and the third highest per capita gross domestic product. In
the first two years after independence, the economy grew by 24 per cent.
This was followed by 5 per cent annualised growth in the next 15 years. The
highest inflation rate was 12 per cent.

Since then, and especially
since 2000, Zimbabwe has gone from being a promising country, full of
committed, highly literate and skilled people, to a basket case with a
population broken by years of neglect and numerous assaults on their
ever-dwindling liberties.

Today, 70 per cent of the country's commercial
agriculture has been destroyed by government mismanagement. Only 10 per cent
of the winter food crop was planted due to lack of fuel and fertilisers.
More than four million Zimbabweans are in need of food aid, 45 per cent of
the population is malnourished and unemployment is over 85 per cent. One in
four of the population has HIV-AIDS and 350 children in Zimbabwe are
orphaned every day due to the disease.

Zimbabwe has the lowest life
expectancy in the world. Women can expect to live to 34.

Inflation is
running as high as 150,000 per cent. The price of a carton of milk taken
from a supermarket shelf can be higher by the time it reaches the
checkout.

It should come as no surprise that Zimbabwe has the world's
second highest per capita diaspora, following only Palestine.

This is
an election that has significance not just in Zimbabwe. As Africans across
the continent come to terms with growing opportunities and the benefits of
good governance, a model is needed. A free Zimbabwe could be in a position
to offer leadership for a democratic Africa.

Should the world community
let this moment pass without ensuring the March 29 poll is sufficiently
democratic, despots across the continent will understand that the will to
remove their dead hand on African progress has again failed to
emerge.

The signs are not good, as few leaders have seen fit to censure
Mugabe's ridiculous election timetable or to sufficiently engage the
democracy movement in the country.

The time has come for Zimbabwe to
remove a dictator who can promise only the direst future for all but a few
Zimbabweans. It is incumbent on the global community to ensure these
elections are fair and free, for the truth is that today they are not and
are not likely to be. That's a tragedy for Zimbabwe and for
Africa.

David Coltart is shadow justice minister for the Movement for
Democratic Change and a member of Zimbabwe's parliament.

Makoni warns farm grabbers 'there will be gnashing of
teeth'

New Zimbabwe

By Torby Chimhashu & Lebo NkatazoLast updated:
03/03/2008 20:28:24INDEPENDENT presidential candidate Simba Makoni on Sunday
came short of branding President Robert Mugabe a liar when he expressed
surprise at remarks by the 84-year-old leader that the former Finance
Minister wanted to reverse land reforms for the benefit white land orders
forcibly driven out of their properties since 2000.

"I would not have
believed it had I not seen him personally on television on Friday," Makoni
told supporters at a campaign rally in Harare. "Had someone told me that
Mugabe said I will return the land to whites, I would not have believed
it.

"But what he said is not true. When did I say it (that I would return
farms to whites) and where did I make such pronouncements? I, Simba Makoni
Nyathi (his totem) won't reverse agrarian reforms but will make sure that
those with multiple farms are taken and given to deserving people. In short,
I will give the farms to the deserving majority not a few politicians who
have grabbed farming equipment and parade at their idle
farms."

Makoni accused Mugabe of hypocrisy. The Zanu PF leader, said
Makoni, publicly castigated multiple farm owners but would cool off in his
cabinet and politburo meetings where "he sat with multiple farm
owners".

He charged that Mugabe had backtracked on his policy of "one
farm per person".

Warned Makoni: "Those with more than one farm
each, those who took farms by force saying 'there is a nice house on top of
the mountain; there is a dam -- there shall be gnashing of teeth! They will face
the consequences.

"I advocate for a fair, transparent, equitable and just
land reform not a skewed exercise that breeds starvation. An audit under
Mavambo/Kusile (A New Beginning) will give land to the majority. We have
noted that nothing tangible came out of the land audits did by Charles Utete
and Flora Bhuka. Now we hear Didymus Mutasa has his own
(audit)."

Mugabe, while addressing his supporters in Harare on Friday,
tore into Makoni and accused him of wanting to reverse his controversial
land seizures.

The octogenarian leader launched a scathing attack on
his former minister by labelling him "a British stooge, political witch,
charlatan and prostitute".

Since the land seizures began in 2000,
Zimbabwe has seen a dramatic decline in food reserves. For the eighth year
running, the country is grappling with a food deficit.

Makoni also
moved to quash speculation that he could be a decoy for Mugabe.

"There
those who say I am still with Mugabe. I will not go backwards," he said.

Tsvangirai targets Harare
suburbans

As the presidential poll draws
nears, Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) faction leader Morgan Tsvangirai
have started a large campaign targeting high density suburbs in Zimbabwe' s
capital Harare to familiarise with ordinary people.

Last week’s visit
took him to Kambuzuma, Kuwadzana and Mufakose where thousands of his supporters
expressed optimism despite the economic turbulence precipitated by sanctions
slapped on Zimbabwe. Tsvangirai who continues to pile pressure on president
Mugabe, launched his election manifesto last week Saturday at Sakubva stadium
in Mutare, Manicaland province.

Tsvangirai was mobbed by residents at
Kuwadzana home industries who were lashing praise songs in anticipation that
Tsvangirai would save them from the eighty year economic bondage under the
Mugabe regime. This is also gives Tsvangirai a chance because Makoni was
snubbed by civic organisations while academic and faction leader Arthur
Mutambara is out of the presidential race.

"Old man, we are suffering,
we really cannot take it anymore," said one unidentified man in his loyal to
Tsvangirai.

Some residents were busy shouting words of encouragement to
Tsvangirai as the ruling Zanu-PF had done nothing to help the dying
Zimbabweans.

"Tsvangirai please take over the reins from Mugabe...he has
bestowed suffering upon his own people" said a supporter clad in party
regalia.

Speaking to the mammoth crowd that came to witness the occasion,
Tsvangirai said "This visit has been a short assessment of the high-density
suburbs. Poverty amongst the people has deepened. There is infrastructure decay,
massive unemployment and people are hungry,"

"The objective of this
election is to give people hope and to say that change is alive. March 29 is
about change that is going to offer jobs, food and proper life for the people of
Zimbabwe," he said.

The MDC faction leader was confident that he would
score a resounding victory and urged the people to go and vote in their
thousands to effectively remove president Mugabe who wants to die in
power.

Tsvangirai also added that despite the unfair political field in
Zimbabwe that always guarantees Mugabe victory, he would turn the tables as the
populace want to restore the dignity of their beloved
country.

Makoni attacks Mugabe
at rally

zimbabwejournalists.com

3rd Mar 2008 11:56 GMT

By Sebastian Nyamhangambiri

HARARE - Dr Simba Makoni
yesterday launched his presidential election campaign with a scathing attack
on President Robert Mugabe whom he accused of having reneging on the pledges
he made to Zimbabweans at independence and paying lip service to fighting
corruption.

Addressing about 5000 people who had thronged Zimbabwe
Grounds in Highfields the former Finance minister said Mugabe - whom
referred throughout his one hour speech as 'father' or 'granny of my
children' - was responsible for the economic meltdown and was not making
any efforts to breathe life into it.

"At independence he (Mugabe)
talked of unity and growth with equity and that is the way we started. If we
had remained on that track we would not be having all these problems. We had
laid a solid foundation good for our country but along the way we got
corrupted with power and forgot about the people's wishes," said Makoni in
Shona. He used Shona throughout his address.

The rally was charged.
Makoni had to plead with supporters after a police officer asked him to wind
up his speech.Police mounted roadblocks in most suburbs and asking cars
ferrying people to the rally to make a u-turn.

Makoni denied
allegations by Mugabe that he was being used by the Western
powers.

"Why is it that anyone with a different view becomes an enemy
and must be discarded?" said Makoni. "After all these years working with him
closely him giving me major tasks and responsibilities and he used to keep
quiet, only that I have announced that I differ with him I become an enemy?
We need ask the people who is the real enemy of the people."

He ruled
out going back to Zanu PF. "I want to make it clear that I was never sent by
baba neither am I working with Zanu PF to scuttle the opposition vote. There
(in Zanu PF) I left and I will not go back t. But I want to say there are
many Zanu PF people who support me, even in MDC there are there," said
Makoni.

Notable former senior Zanu PF people who attended the rally
include former Makonde MP Kindness Paradza, former education minister Fay
Chung, Margret Dongo, Edgar Tekera and Ibbotson MandazaHe said if
elected into power at the 29 March election he would fight corruption and
address the tottering economy mainly through a transparent land
policy.

"Year after year, he (Mugabe) loses voice condemning corruption
even to an extent of saying he knows some senior Zanu PF members yet he does
nothing about it. Under new dawn there won't be sacred cows," said
Makoni.

Makoni refuted what Mugabe said on Friday that he would reverse
the land redistribution programme.

"I want to know when I said I
would return the land to the enemy. I never said that," said Makoni. "Year
after year he loses voice talking of multiple farm owners. Yet senior people
in his Politburo have six or even more farms. Under a new dawn there will be
a gnashing of teeth for those multiple farm owners which they grabbed for
various reasons. We want land distributed fairly and equitably to rectify
the chaos identified in the four different land commissions."

Makoni
said he wants the price control and stringent foreign currency
relaxed.

He made an attack on Zanu PF government for being
hypocrites."After they destroyed education system they now send their
children abroad to write exams which they tell us that they are for colonial
masters," said Makoni.

"In hospitals, the main functioning department
is a mortuary. If a leader falls sick they go to Morningside Clinic, what
about the entire populace?"

He said he wanted the manufacturing and
mining sectors to resume operations at full throttle by addressing the power
shortages and removing price controls. He said a culture of self-reliance
needed to be addressed.

He said: "Self-determination is not about
reliance, even communal farmers must be able to buy their needs if the
economy has life, in 1986, they used to feed the entire nation and have
surplus for export but the nation is now relying on food handouts. Why? It
is because we destroyed the nation. We now stay in darkness but we had power
supplies for the whole country. Patients are now dying because they can be
in theatre because of constant power outages."

MDC Candidate
Arrested For Door-to-Door Campaign

MDC candidates
and supporters continue to be arrested and intimidated by the police and
state security agents ahead of the March 29 elections with the parliamentary
candidate for Bulawayo East, Thabita Khumalo being arrested for carrying out
a door to door campaign in the constituency in the latest clampdown on the
party members.

Khumalo, who is also the party's deputy secretary for
information and publicity and other MDC activists were carrying out a door
to door voter education campaign in the area when they were arrested by the
police at taken to Bulawayo Central Police Station.

The group was
still detained at the police station by late today.

Last Friday the MDC
candidate for St Mary's, Marvelous Khumalo and other 11 party members
including three councilors were also arrested for carrying a door-to-door
campaign. He was denied bail today and he was remanded to tomorrow. He is
still detained at Chitungwiza Police Station.

One of the 11 party members
from St Mary's was seriously injured when he was attacked with an axe on the
head by a council security guard. The injured MDC member is recovering at
Avenues Clinic in Harare.

Throughout the country, cases of violence
against MDC continue to escalate. The MDC believes that the arrests by the
police and state security agents is a systematic campaign of frustrating MDC
supporters and candidates ahead of the harmonised elections.

Tafara And Mabvuku Without Water, Electricity, Sewerage for 7
Months

SW Radio Africa (London)

28 February 2008Posted
to the web 3 March 2008

Tererai Karimakwenda

We received
reports from residents of Mabvuku and Tafara high-density areas of Harare
that people have been dying from water borne diseases. Their sewerage
systems have collapsed and the authorities are doing nothing about
it.

Residents described shocking situations where human excrement is
flowing into the back yards where they grow vegetables. Anyone who has
visited says the stench is unbearable.

Schools and nurseries are
surrounded by sewerage flowing through the streets and vendors are selling
fruit and vegetables in the midst of all this.

Sherpard Madamombe, a
parliamentary candidate for Mabvuku-Tafara in the Tsvangirai MDC, said he
recently toured the area and was shocked to see how much sewerage was
actually on the streets. He said some residents can no longer access their
homes because human waste was flowing right into their houses. And people
are dying from diarrhea and dysentery.

Madamombe said desperate residents
dug a borehole in order to have drinking water, but the well is located
close to a huge pit to where sewerage is being re-directed. He thanked a
non-governmental organisation called Doctors without Borders because they
are providing chemicals to treat some of the drinking water. Madamombe said
UNICEF, the UN children's unit, has also been bringing water bowsers to the
area.

As for electricity, Madamombe said areas like Chinjanje and Old
Tafara have had no power for about 9 months now. Old Tafara is where the
district office is located. The local officials used to use computers, but
without power they now have to resort to ball point pens to record rent
payments made by residents.

Madamombe said government officials went
around taking notes recently but nothing has been done so far. The city of
Harare and all its surrounding suburbs have been neglected since the elected
Mayor Elias Mudzuri and elected councilors were removed illegally by the
Minister of Local government Ignatius Chombo - who then appointed
commissioners to run the city. They have raised rates but are not providing
any services. Corruption and mismanagement have also been rampant.

Election results could take week before winner is
known

Zim Online

by Nqobizitha Khumalo & Lizwe Sebatha Tuesday
04 March 2008

BULAWAYO - Zimbabwe authorities
on Monday refused to say when they would announce election results, as
non-governmental organisations said the state's electoral commission lacked
capacity and could take up to a week to name poll winners.

The
Zimbabwe Electoral Commission (ZEC) said it would not commit itself to a
date when it would announce results of the March 29 polls for fear this
could spark Kenyan-style post-election violence in the event it failed to
keep the promise because of possible delays in the voting process.

"We do not want to be accused of rigging elections if we release the results
earlier or later than the estimated dates . . . doing so might also spark
post-election violence, similar to that experienced in Kenya," ZEC spokesman
Shupikai Mashereni told ZimOnline by phone.

But the Zimbabwe
Election Support Network (ZESN) said the commission did not have the
logistical capacity to run the multiple elections, the first ever in which
Zimbabweans will choose a new president, senators, House of Assembly
representatives and local councillors.

"The ZEC has no capacity and
the logistics to handle this election so the results might take between four
days and one week before they are announced," said ZESN chairman, Noel
Kututwa.

The ZESN is a coalition of civic groups and is involved in
providing voter education and monitoring of the electoral environment before
and after elections.

Opposition parties and election observers
have in the past argued that delays in announcing poll winners allow time to
tamper with results.

But Zimbabwe's Electoral Act does not set out
specific time limits within which results should be announced, only saying
this should happen immediately when results are ready and
available.

Zimbabwe goes to polls amid an acute economic recession
critics blame on mismanagement by President Robert Mugabe and seen in the
world's highest inflation rate of more than 100 000 percent, 80 percent
unemployment and shortages of food, fuel and foreign currency.

However, analysts say an unfair playing field guarantees Mugabe victory. The
veteran leader - who at one time boasted that no one could have run Zimbabwe
better than him - has promised a landslide victory against main opposition
leader Morgan Tsvangirai and former finance minister Simba Makoni. -
ZimOnline

Zim opposition protests over radio, TV
blackout

Zim Online

by Prince Nyathi Monday 03 March
2008

HARARE - The main opposition Movement for
Democratic Change (MDC) party has accused the state-owned Zimbabwe
Broadcasting Holdings (ZBH) of imposing a blackout on its activities ahead
of elections this month.

The MDC said ZBH was seeking to prop up
President Robert Mugabe and his ZANU PF party's campaign through favourable
coverage, in what the opposition party said was a breach of regional
guidelines that all political parties should receive equal coverage in the
public media.

Zimbabwe holds presidential, parliamentary and
council elections on 29 March and Mugabe's government faces a tricky
challenge from the Morgan Tsvangirai-led MDC and from former finance
minister Simba Makoni who is running as an independent but has the backing
of a smaller faction of the divided MDC led by Arthur
Mutambara.

"It is our view that ZBH has abused its privilege to
give unfair advantage to ZANU PF and its candidate even though as a publicly
funded broadcaster, you are expected to give equal coverage to all political
players," MDC information director Luke Tamborinyoka wrote in a letter to
ZBH boss, Henry Muradzikwa, dated February 27.

The ZBH runs the
country's only radio and television stations and has the widest reach beyond
independent newspapers that give fair coverage to the opposition but
circulate almost exclusively in urban and peri-urban areas.

There are at least three smaller radio stations that broadcast into Zimbabwe
from outside the country but they do not have the same impact as ZBH. The
government has from time-to-time jammed signals from the foreign-based radio
stations.

Tamborinyoka said the ZBH gave prime time coverage to
ZANU PF and Mugabe while ignoring the opposition and cited as an example the
broadcaster's failure to cover the launching of the MDC campaign manifetso
in Mutare city.

ZBH did not send reporters to the event even though
it had been invited but instead devoted several hours to reporting Mugabe's
84th birthday celebration, which the veteran leader used to attack and
denigrate the opposition.

Muradzikwa was not immediately
available for comment on the matter while the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission
that conducts elections and has responsibility to ensure fairness said it
was finishing preparing new regulations on the coverage of contestants in
the polls.

"The regulations are being finalised and I can't comment
further than that until the regulations are in place," ZEC spokesman Utoile
Silaigwana. He did not say when exactly the regulations would be
announced.

Analysts say an unfair political playing field
guarantees Mugabe victory at the polls despite his failure to end Zimbabwe's
severe economic crisis seen in the world's highest inflation rate of more
than 100 000 percent, 80 percent unemployment and shortages of food, fuel
and foreign currency. - ZimOnline

Violet Gonda: On the
programme Hot Seat this week I am speaking to Priscilla Misihairabwi
Mushonga, the Deputy Secretary General of the Mutambara MDC. Welcome
Priscilla.

Priscilla Misihairabwi Mushonga: Thank you, thank you
Violet.

Violet: Let me start with the electoral environment in the
country right now and with the elections around the corner, do you think
they will be free and fair?

Priscilla : Certainly, we have never been
under any elusion that these elections will be free and fair but what is
getting clearer by the day is that these elections will actually be much
more difficult and that the environment will also be much stricter than it
has been or that it was in 2005. Because we are noticing that the police for
example are stopping candidates from doing evening meetings. I know that
Trudy Stevenson has been stopped from having her evening meetings and she's
currently trying to do a court petition at the moment. We know that people
have been picked up for doing door-to-door campaign, they now have something
ridiculous like a charge called Criminal Nuisance or something like that,
and whilst we had amendments on POSA, that were supposed to create much more
freer and better environment, the police are not taking on any of those
things that they have put on to POSA. They are forcing themselves onto new
meetings and wanting to sit into party meetings. They are not acknowledging
the rules that you can have 15 people gathered without necessarily having to
asking police permission. So clearly, you can see that ZANU PF is going to
make this election much, much, much more difficult than it has been in
2005.

Violet : Clearly things are worsening and one would ask why
participate in such an environment?

Priscilla : Well we have made it
very clear, our formation has made it very clear, that we will participate
in every election because we want to make the cost of the dictatorship
expensive; we are not going to allow ZANU PF to have a free ride in anything
in any form of election. We will fight them tooth and nail in anything that
they will try to do; secondly we do not believe that just passing boycotts
will make a difference. We need to show ZANU PF for what it is - a
dictatorship. If ZANU PF allowed us to have free and fair elections there
would not be a dictator, there would not be a dictatorship, so the very fact
that they are behaving the way that they are behaving only proves our point
and we will make sure that we make it clear to the world that when we say
this is a regime that is not going to allow for a proper and easy transition
of change over of power, then we need to put it to practice and we will do
this every other minute and every other time there is need for a contest. We
will contest them.

Violet : What about the issue of the Presidential
race. Why did Professor Arthur Mutambara stand down in the Presidential
race?

Priscilla : You will remember that from day one what Professor
Mutambara always said is that we want to make sure that every vote counts.
It does not matter how small that vote is, it does not matter who is voting
but as long as that individual is voting against Mugabe, we do not want to
ever sit down and say we wasted a vote. The only way you can make a vote
count is to make sure that you have a one Presidential candidate. We've
spent the last 8 months talking to our colleagues in the other MDC and had
hoped that we'd reach an agreement to make sure that at least we would have
one candidate from President to the lowest level and unfortunately our
colleagues had a different thinking around what we should be doing and
decided to pull out at the last minute. When Simba Makoni came into the race
and because we still believed in the one candidate philosophy, we then
decided that whilst we may not necessarily have an electoral pact with him,
we will call upon our supporters and everybody else to make sure that they
do put their vote on for Simba Makoni because he is standing against Robert
Mugabe.

Violet : I will come to that issue about your alliance or the
relationship you have with the Simba Makoni formation. But I want to go back
to the issue of Professor Arthur Mutambara standing down. Does it not hurt
your chances as the Mutambara MDC - does it not hurt your chances of
representation when you don't have a Presidential
candidate?

Priscilla : Certainly not! We think it is stupid for anybody
right now to think that if you have three candidates you can make it with
those three candidates - and in that way I am talking about opposition
candidates. All it would mean is that the more Presidential candidates you
have, the less you have chances to win the Presidential race and in our
thinking what we need in Zimbabwe right now is to make sure that we make use
of the capacity and the resources that we have, and we believe that we
should spend our energies and resources in making sure that we have enough
Senators and enough Councillors and enough Members of Parliament to make a
difference - when you need some kind of coalition of forces of the
opposition. And that is what we are spending most of our energies on,
instead of putting in energies on a Presidential race where you know by the
mere fact that you now have three opposition people that are running the
chances of actually making it in that race is pretty. And we have decided to
actually be the ones who will say "we will pull out", if only to enhance the
chances of those that are staying in to be able to beat
Mugabe.

Violet : Could it be said that Professor Arthur Mutambara knew he
had no following and that your group was weak and that is why he opted for a
parliamentary seat?

Priscilla : Well people can say whatever it is
they want to say but I am sure that any person that has any form of brain
would understand that just merely trying to run in a race and you already
are three of you, would mean that you would divide whatever vote that you
have. Whether he was the one who was going to have the least vote, for us
it's not important. All it means is that whatever votes he was going to get
is a vote that could be added to another Presidential candidate who is
fighting against Robert Mugabe. So it only makes sense to anybody to then
decide that this is what we are going to do but he had also said "I still
want to be a player, I will find a constituency, I will mobilise at a
constituency level and I will make sure that the vote that I will get from
that constituency level becomes a vote that adds up to the totality of the
votes against Robert Gabriel Mugabe." I think people should be concentrating
much more on the principle, and the value and the need to begin to say,
"this is not about Arthur Mutambara, it is about making sure that I become
part of a group, part of an alliance that works against Robert Gabriel
Mugabe, because for some of us this election is not about who becomes the
best opposition leader. This is about how do we ensure the we enhance the
chances for the people of Zimbabwe who have had so much suffering, to get
rid of this regime and to get rid of Robert Gabriel Mugabe.

Violet :
But on the issue of representation, you didn't field candidates in many of
these constituencies - whether it's for the Parliamentary race or the
Senatorial. Now is this an exception that you are weak and what is your game
plan since you don't have a lot of candidates?

Priscilla : That actually
not true, that's actually not true. In fact we fielded 65% of the places
where we needed to field. And again our fielding has just not been
willy-nilly, we literally have fielded in areas where we believe we have the
potential to be able to make a difference. We do not believe that you can go
and field a candidate in Umzumba Maramba Pfungwe where up until now we have
not been able to hold a rally and attract more than a 1 000 people in UMP.
But in those areas where we have structures and we have work that has gone
on we have actually fielded candidates. You'll remember that when we did the
rural council elections, again people asked us the same questions; "Oh the
Tsvangirai grouping had fielded candidates in every other area," but if you
look at the results of those rural council elections - we had 41 they had 40
but they had fielded in more areas. So we will be able to see whether
fielding in every other place makes a difference or making sure that you
invest your resources, you invest your time in those constituencies in which
you believe you have the capacity and the ability to be able to win. So we
believe that in is close to 65-70% of the places in Zimbabwe we have fielded
candidates and that's where we are spending most of our time in. We are not
going to waste our time in places where we know up to now we have not done
enough work.

Violet : Since now you are not contesting in the
Presidential race, have you now accepted that you are just a parliamentary
opposition?

Priscilla : Certainly not. I don't know where people are
getting that from and the world over; you will find that people only begin
to negotiate on particular leadership when they now have seats in their
hands. It would be interesting and we may want to have these discussions
after the 29 th and actually indicate who has more power in the event that
you are now discussing serious coalition within opposition forces. So
anybody who is going into these elections and think they can have a clean
sweep, are probably lying to themselves. Any opposition force that is going
on right now should be going on with the understanding that any government
that is going to be coming, is going to be a government based on a
coalition, going to be a government based on issues of power sharing and
perhaps at this stage that's what Zimbabwe needs. We have had more than 28
years of a dominant party. We need to begin to dismantle that kind of
thinking.

The reason why most other countries in Europe are successful is
because you don't necessarily have a one party that is dominant. It is
dangerous it should never be repeated. Power rests in Parliament, power
rests in Senatorial, power rests in local government and you can only begin
to put yourself in checks balances if you do have that. Yes it is clear we
have made up our minds, at this stage we are not necessarily running for
President but you may be surprised that in terms of forming a coalition
government we may actually be the political party that holds power and
controls whoever becomes the President after 29 th of March.

Violet :
Now tell us a bit more about this coalition because Professor Arthur
Mutambara told journalists that he had made an alliance with Dr Makoni and I
think I saw an article a couple of weeks ago where you were quoted also
saying that you had formed this alliance with the Makoni formation. But Dr
Makoni has been on the record, he's been interviewed on South African radio
saying that he is not seeking alliance. So what really is the relationship
between your group and that of Dr Makoni's?

Priscilla : Let's just
correct that. Professor Mutambara at the press conference did not refer to
any alliance. I have not referred to any alliance. What we said at the press
conference was that we were endorsing Simba Makoni as the Presidential
candidate. Simba Makoni is standing as an Independent; he is not in alliance
with us. We do not have an electoral pact, we have no agreement. We were
seeking an agreement with our colleagues in the MDC because we have always
been in one party. We were talking around issues of reunification. We have
not discussed with Simba Makoni over issues of policy, over issues of
ideology. We have only said for purposes of this election because you have
three candidates - you have Robert Gabriel Mugabe, you have Simba Makoni and
you have Morgan Tsvangirai. We were having discussions with Morgan
Tsvangirai who refuted and said he does not want to be working with us as a
formation.

You are then left with two Presidential candidates: who is
Simba Makoni and Robert Gabriel Mugabe. We cannot support Robert Mugabe
because we are fighting against the system of Robert Mugabe. Which leaves us
with one candidate and that particular person has said, "I am standing as an
Independent, I am willing to work with every other Zimbabwean who believes
that I have the potential of being a Presidential candidate," and we have
said at a strategic level - because we believe this is somebody who is
coming from ZANU PF, who has the potential of breaking down the institution
of ZANU PF - we will endorse his candidature.

So at no point have we
spoken about an alliance with Simba, at no point have we said we have an
agreement or an electoral pact. We have said we are endorsing his
candidature; it is like the Kennedys waking up in the morning and saying we
are endorsing the candidature of Obama. You are merely saying I am asking
every other person who believes in me and think they can vote for me, that
when they vote for me, they can also vote for Simba Makoni. But you are not
necessarily saying I am going to be standing up and talking of the policies
of Simba. It is not our mandate, we hold no brief for Simba Makoni but at
this particular point in time given the candidates that we have for
Presidential he is the candidate that we have endorsed.

Violet : Some
will ask that how is it you will still endorse a man like Simba Makoni who
refuses to say he is against Robert Mugabe and refuses to publicly condemn
what the system has done. Does this not worry you that you are endorsing
such a person? How would you answer that?

Priscilla : Again it is not
true that Simba Makoni has said he is not against Robert Mugabe otherwise he
would not be standing against the man. He has said his politics is not about
fighting individuals and I think it is a good policy. It is a change to the
concept that when you go into an election and you are opposing an individual
you should be seen as particularly an enemy to this individual. It is a
change of that culture and a change of language. I at a personal level
appreciate that we have got somebody who is beginning to make a difference
between being an opposition or a competitor to say I am against you. You are
never against an individual. You are merely at that time a competitor for a
particular post. So let's clear that.

What he has also said is that he
would have preferred under normal circumstances to be able to hold a contest
with Mugabe within the ZANU PF because he believes that his leadership in
ZANU PF has led to the kind of disastrous policies that are in ZANU PF, but
because he was not given an opportunity to do so precisely because that
system has become undemocratic - he is doing it outside the system. That he
believes there are people who are within ZANU PF who still believe that
ZANUPF is a good party but are against leadership things of Robert Mugabe
and certain policies that are being undertaken within that political party.
Who still supports him? And I think it is right for somebody to be that open
and to be that frank. If ZANU PF had given him an opportunity he would have
wanted to change ZANU PF and still contested under ZANU PF but he was not
given the opportunity to do so and he is now doing it as an Independent.
It's actually nothing wrong with doing that.

It is exactly the same
as somebody like Jacob Zuma. If he had not been given the opportunity to be
able to stand in the ANC and challenge Thabo Mbeki, if he had then gone out
and said I still believe in the ANC, I believe it is a revolutionary party
but because it has not allowed me as Jacob Zuma to be a contestant in the
ANC I am now forming a political party or I am standing as an Independent.
How does that make a person a bad person? I don't understand.

Violet
: Priscilla it's known that your group has shadow structures on the ground
in Zimbabwe and it appears that Dr Makoni has none or no structures at
present. So are you his surrogate structures now or rather, what is he
getting from your endorsement?

Priscilla : Precisely not. What is sad
about Zimbabweans Violet is that we have become such a skeptical nation that
even when the opportunities are provided to make a difference, we spend so
much time being negative. For me what Simba Makoni did this time is the most
brilliant strategy that anybody in ZANUPF has ever thought about, because if
you get out of the system you do not inherit the structures of ZANU PF. If
Simba Makoni had gotten out and said I am forming a political party, it
would have been difficult for him to inherit some of the structures that are
in ZANU PF. So in fact, what the structures that Simba is using for himself
are ZANU PF structures. So you literally have two parties within one. You
have a Simba Makoni side and you have a Robert Mugabe side. What does it
mean? It means you have the best strategy of destroying that particular
institution. The reason why opposition political parties have failed year
after year is because we have always been operating from outside of ZANU PF
and not necessarily eating ZANU PF from within. And what Simba Makoni is
attempting to do -whether he will be successful or not successful - but for
me it is a beginning of something that we need to have if we are going to
destroy the institution of ZANU PF. And not one person can give me an
example of any African Political party where you have been able to deal with
it without finding ways of dismantling it either by having some people from
within the system eating out of it or by having people within the system
beginning to challenge the system and I think it is the best
thing.

So, if he is able to balance dividing ZANU PF and picking out
people that are from outside the ZANU PF without necessarily having to sit
down on the table and saying this is what I am going to give you, the reason
why our own arrangement that we were trying to do with our brothers and
sisters in the Morgan Tsvangirai group, the reason why they failed is that
people became so pre-occupied with provisions and where they are going to be
- to such an extent that people lost the bigger picture. People were more
worried about how many seats and who is going to be standing in what area in
Bulawayo and Matabeleland that they forgot the struggle was about Robert
Gabriel Mugabe.

With Simba Makoni no one is sitting around him trying to
find out whether they will be a cabinet minister. That can only happen
afterwards. At the moment if you support Simba, you are only supporting him
because you believe he is able to mobilize enough votes to dislodge Robert
Gabriel Mugabe. Simba is not looking to dislodge ZANU PF, he has no
candidates to dislodge ZANU PF. Simba is looking to dislodge Robert Gabriel
Mugabe. We are looking to dislodge ZANU PF at Parliamentary, Senatorial and
Council level. I think if we were all of us, as Zimbabweans, were to agree
that this is the two tier strategy we are going to use that would to be the
formula to do so but unfortunately Zimbabweans being Zimbabweans, we are
spending so much time doing a critique around; "Why is it someone that was
in ZANU PF is now outside ZANU PF, why he is not castigating ZANU PF?" I
think it is sad and sometimes I actually think that Zimbabweans deserve
Robert Mugabe because sometimes we behave like we deserve him.

Violet
: But Priscilla with all due respect you must understand that people have
suffered at the hands of this despotic regime so it's only natural for
people to feel this way. That's why people would ask your group that what
makes you think that Simba Makoni will be different since his been part of
this regime for a long time. And you yourself have admitted that you don't
know his strategies, you don't know his policies, so how can your group
trust this formation if you don't know anything? All you have done is to.
(Interject)

Priscilla : No! It's not totally true to say we don't
know Simba, we know Simba. We know Simba is the one Minister of Finance who
was fired by Robert Gabriel Mugabe because he happened to speak his mind. We
know that Simba is one Zimbabwean . (interject)

Violet: But do we
really know. (Interject)

Priscilla: Sorry?

Violet : But do we
really know the conditions for which Makoni was fired, do you really know
why he was fired?

Priscilla : Yes! I know that! I was the chairperson of
the Public Accounts Committee and I know that Simba was fired because at
that stage he was against the monies that were going to be given to the war
veterans, the $50,000 that was going to be given to war veterans. I now that
Simba was fired because at that time he was talking about the issue of
devaluation of the Zimbabwean dollar. People should not pretend they don't
know that and everybody in ZANU PF who you speak to, knows that if there is
anybody who in a Politburo meeting and was able to take Mugabe on and ask
him questions it would be Simba. So we know that.

But I think also
Violet every other person who is in the opposition right now, the majority
of them, perhaps with some of us who have not been necessarily been in ZANU
PF, the majority of those people have been in ZANU PF. Morgan Tsvangirai was
a member of ZANU PF. He was a member of ZANU PF. When he was a secretary
general of the Zimbabwean Congress of Trade Unions, he was a member of ZANU
PF. He would invite Ministers in ZANU PF. We have war veterans from ZAPU and
ZANU who currently are leaders in the Movement for Democratic Change. We can
not punish people because they were part of the system at some stage. If
somebody said I tried to deal with the system when I was there now I have
gotten out of it I want to challenge this individual they can't be punished.
In fact they are having double standard. All those people who were part of
ZANU PF should never be in the opposition if that is the position that we
are going to take.

The only thing that I said about Simba is that the
reason why I could sit down and openly say to you we are having an agreement
with the Tsvangirai grouping is that at the time we were discussing, we were
discussing a reunification and we were discussing the values and principles
that set up the Movement for Democratic Change. So I could come out tomorrow
and say I have an agreement with these guys because that agreement followed
the values and principles and everything else in an ideological issue. Those
things have still not been clarified by Simba - at the moment, which is why
I did not go into an electoral pact and I still feel that if I have enough
votes, if I have enough MPs enough Senators I will be able to influence some
of the policies that he has if he then seeks a coalition with me. But at
this particular point in time I think he has got the best chance of dealing
with Robert Gabriel Mugabe. He holds the biggest axe to deal with this man
and I will support him. What is the alternative?

The alternative is
to say Robert Gabriel Mugabe stays in power. The alternative is not to
support Morgan Tsvangirai because he has said he doesn't want my support. So
that is the position that we are in as the Mutambara grouping and clearly
given the choices that we have at the moment the only choice that we've got
is to endorse Simba but we are not going to be his foot soldiers. We cannot
speak on his behalf; we can only say given these choices we think our best
bet is Simba. If the people of Zimbabwe think Morgan Tsvangirai is the there
best bet we respect their decision to do so. But I as Priscilla when I get
into that ballot box will vote for Simba because he is the one who has asked
for my vote. I wanted to give my vote to Morgan Tsvangirai he said he
doesn't want it and I respect his position and I will not force
him.

Violet; Why do you think Morgan Tsvangirai said he didn't want your
vote? What went wrong?

Priscilla: Some of us who were part of the
negotiations, I will tell you Violet, are still in shock because by Saturday
at 12 midnight we could have signed that agreement but by 7:30 in the
morning Tsvangirai was a completely different person altogether. I believe
two things could have happened. The first thing is I believe either during
the process in which we were negotiating they were not negotiating in good
faith, that they were playing some game that we will have to find out one
day. Or if I give them the benefit of the doubt I believe the system, which
is the CIO, must have gone to Tsvangirai between the time we finished our
meeting at 12 midnight on Saturday to 7:30 in the morning and must have
either lied to him and said to him if you go back to these guys and say to
them; "unless if you give me the entire Matabeleland, I am not prepared to
go into this process with you."

Told him that we were so desperate that
if he demanded for the entire Matabeleland we would still agree to an
agreement. But certainly sometime later on in life somebody will be able to
write a story or will be able to tell us who went to Tsvangirai's house from
midnight on Saturday to 7:30 . Because we had a meeting on Friday and if at
that meeting on Friday while we were negotiating, if the negotiations had
broken down, I would honestly be saying to you Violet that we both can be
held responsible for those negotiations breaking down. Because at some stage
we all got emotional and I remember all of us picking up our papers and
saying this is useless! The only person who sat in that room and looked at
all of us and said, "you can be as angry as you want, you can throw as much
tantrum as you want but I, as Morgan Tsvangirai am not walking out of that
door facing the people of Zimbabwe under a divided MDC."

So I am very
convinced that from the time we started talking on Thursday, Friday and even
Saturday Morgan Tsvangirai was committed to having a united MDC but
something happened between 12midnight and 7:30am . And anyone who knows who
Morgan saw between 12 and 7:30 will one day tell us who that individual is
because that person was paid big money and he was paid big money by the
system! That's all I can say.

Violet: Some analysts say it was egos and
nothing regarding policies and strategies that could have caused the unity
talks to fail. Do you agree?

Priscilla: No but I am telling you Violet,
in fact our formation has put out a day blow by blow account of what was
happening on each day from the time we started negotiating to the time that
these things broke down! And if those analysts have anything to say they
should go and look at that blow by blow account and be able to tell us, like
I am saying, what happened between 12 midnight and 7:30 ? Because at 12
midnight on Saturday we were only left with talking on two constituencies
and those constituencies were whether we were going to be giving Morgan
Tsvangirai two other constituencies - one from Mat North and one from Mat
South in exchange to nothing or whether they were going to be giving us two
other constituencies in exchange for something. We had gone through all the
egos that you are talking about. We had gone through all the tantrums and
the madness that could have broken the negotiations and it does not make
sense to me that Tsvangirai was able to go through all the madness of these
negotiations and decided on the Sunday at 7:30 to say he is no longer
interested in these negotiations. Something happened! Somebody spoke to him!
And that person can only be someone who new that a united front would be a
sure way of Robert Mugabe getting out of power and that is the person that
the analysts and everybody who cares about Zimbabwe needs to find out. At
least I personally am going to spend all my living life trying to find out
who that person is because he is a very dangerous individual and I say "he"
because I believe it can only be a man.

Violet: Now Priscilla why would
you believe it could only be a man and not some women in the
opposition?

Priscilla: Because at the time those negotiations were taking
place - there were only two women on the Tsvangirai side. It was Teresa
Makone and Thokozani Khupe. At the time we came back to Zimbabwe and started
these negotiations the only other two women in the opposition were myself
and Miriam Mushayi. Secondly we could not have been the people who went to
Morgan Tsvangirai's house. So the people who were present on the last day of
these negotiations were the men and Teresa Makone. I do not want to give
Teresa Makone the power that she may have turned this thing around. After
all she had just entered the leadership in the last few days. It is possible
it may have been her but I believe out of the men who were sitting at that
table and in my mind it is wrong to say it is this individual but when I
finally finish the book that I am writing I may just have the guts to name
this particular individual because I have a very strong suspicion that among
those men that were negotiating, one of the very high profile people in the
Tsvangirai camp - who is said to have gone to Tsvangirai's house at about
1:30 in the morning - is the person who was sent by the security forces. And
is the person who actually made sure that these negotiations don't come to
fruition.

Violet: Had you established a coalition with the Tsvangirai
MDC would you have pushed harder for a broader coalition with Makoni as
well?

Priscilla: Certainly. I actually believe that if we had had the
United Front Simba Makoni would have had no choice but to actually come into
the broader grouping because it would have been established already that
you'd have no choice but to work within the broader formation of the
progressive forces. The reason why Simba was then able to come out as an
Independent is I purely believe it's because the kind of coalition, the kind
of reunification that needed to take place between the two MDC had fallen
through.

The other aspect which people are not talking about which I am
going to talk about Violet, is the very fact that we have the males in Civic
Society who are working very hard to make sure that this United Front did
not take place. And some of those males have spoken to me personally so I am
not talking about things that I have heard from outside. These males have
said they want Morgan Tsvangirai to participate in this election as an
individual with a fractured MDC. They want to make sure that Morgan
Tsvangirai loses this election so that he gets out of the way so that those
males who are in Civic Society will then come in and inherit the structures
that are in the Morgan Tsvangirai group and become the leaders in the MDC -
Tsvangirai grouping. These are the same males who were at the center of
divisions of the MDC, the same males that have organized a convention and
have decided as Civic Society they will say, "we will endorse Morgan
Tsvangirai," when everyday of their lives they are the same males who have
been talking to some of us, calling Morgan Tsvangirai a sellout with
Amendment 18, calling him unreasonable, calling him uneducated, calling him
all sorts of names. And it is the same males who are standing up right now
pretending that they are supporting Morgan Tsvangirai. And it is important
for the world to know that. (Interrupted)

Violet: But who are these
people?

Priscilla: . These are the other forces that are making sure that
the MDC will never be a re-united front because it limits their chances of
getting into politics. But trust me you will be able to identify these males
after the 29 th of March and you will understand what I am talking
about.

Violet: How are people going to know and what are they going to do
after the 29 th of March and are you able to name these
people?

Priscilla: This is why I am saying if I name them now people will
tend to think I am merely doing so because I want to malign certain
individuals but the reason I am putting it out to the public is that when
people begin to see their behaviors after the elections, they will
understand what I was talking about. If I know what is going to happen after
the 29 th - if after the 29 th none of the Presidential candidates that are
standing against Robert Mugabe have made it for President, you will be able
to see the kind of political formations that are going to be coming out
after the 29 th. But let it be rest assured that Morgan Tsvangirai should
know that the people that are standing up and saying "you did a good job not
to re-unite with the Mutambara group, you did a good job for you to stand on
your own," those are the same individuals who will be waiting to take him
for his burial after the 29 th. And people will know who these males are and
it will be much more clearer because they will have to come out of the
woodwork where they are hiding right now.

Violet: Now briefly because
I am running out of time, some consider you as sellouts and Roy Bennett said
recently that you people have gone back home to ZANU PF - and there are
others who accuse you of being part of a plot to bring back ZANU PF through
the backdoor - how would you respond to that, briefly?

Priscilla: I
will not even dignify those kinds of statements with any responds Violet!
When we ran for the Senatorial elections we were called sellouts, we were
called people who were trying to sanitize ZANU PF. The same individuals that
stood on podiums and castigated us are the same individuals today who are
not only running for the Senate but are beating people up in their own
political parties so that they can become Senators. I have no time for
people who think like that. You can lie but you cannot lie to everybody like
that. I have never been ZANU PF, I have fought ZANU PF from the time that I
became anybody that can stand up to the system, I will fight ZANU PF until I
die and it does not matter how many times you stand up because you think it
will give you more donor money to castigate us, it will not change the
Priscilla that I am. I will fight for justice and if you are part of the
people that are working against the issues of justice, we will also fight
you and it doesn't matter how much and how many times you call me a sellout
I know who I am and God will vindicate some of us. It may take 10years, it
may take 15years but people will remember that some of us speak for justice
all the time!

Violet: And on that issue about your group standing for
justice can you finally tell our listeners what your group is offering the
electorate, as elections are around the corner.

Priscilla: Ours is
very simple. The reason why we are contesting against ZANU PF, the reason
why we are saying we are an alternative is because of one thing. We believe
that ZANU PF has betrayed the poor, the peasantry, and the working class.
They have betrayed the ideals of the liberation struggle. We are the
political party that wants to go back to those ideals. The ideals of
freedom, the ideals of justice, the ideals that says if you are a Zimbabwean
it does not matter what political party you come from you are a Zimbabwean
and you should be treated with dignity. The ideals that says every person is
important irrespective of the class, of tribe, of gender. And in everything
that we do - whether it is in the economy, whether is social services we
will be guided by those particular principles. And that is what we stand
for.

Mugabe tightens his grip

The contest for the presidency in Zimbabwe has
begun, with candidates preparing manifestos and travelling the length and
breadth of the country to drum up support.

Robert
Mugabe Unlike his opponents, Mugabe can rely on state resources
to drive his campaign.

While other people arriving in
Beitbridge last weekend had to endure the crumbling highway that leads into
the border town, Mugabe and his family were flown in on a special police
plane and driven to his birthday-party venue in a 4x4.

His birthday speech, which he used to launch his campaign, was later
simultaneously broadcast on the country's four radio channels and on
television.

Mugabe was unforgiving in his attacks on his
rivals, saving his choicest insults for Simba Makoni. To illustrate his
criticism of what he said was Makoni's "naive ambition", Mugabe said of him:
"He is like the frog which puffed itself up so much, trying to get to the
size of an ox. The frog kept doing this until it burst."

Mugabe is due to launch his campaign manifesto next week at a function in
Harare that will be attended by his top officials.

While his
rivals' manifestos are setting up the economy as the central issue of the
campaign, Mugabe is unlikely to come up with a substantive manifesto. He
told a television interviewer that his job was already done: "I have given
people something tangible," he said, pointing to farm equipment -- from
ox-drawn ploughs to tractors and fertiliser -- which he has been handing out
to rural voters over the past year.

"People look at what you
do between elections, not just before elections," he
said.

Analysts agree, saying his "farm mechanisation"
programme is likely to bolster his traditional rural support, despite his
own admission that the government's predictions of a bumper harvest were
false.

But poor harvests ahead of elections are always a
godsend for Zanu-PF. Now Mugabe can distribute food aid and the grain his
government has imported, mostly from South Africa and Malawi, in exchange
for votes.

A new ward-based voting system -- where voters can
only vote within a small radius of their home -- will also make it easier
for Mugabe to pick out which hungry villages voted against
him.

MDC Morgan Tsvangirai, who leads the
larger of the two factions of the MDC, launched his campaign at a rally in
the eastern town of Mutare last weekend.

With media focus
in recent weeks on new entrant Makoni, the large turnout at his rally will
have lifted Tsvangirai's spirits, and, he told his supporters, his party
remained the "legitimate" opposition in Zimbabwe.

On
Wednesday, he went on a "walkabout" in Harare's central business district
and in some of the capital's poorest suburbs, meeting supporters without
interference from the security services.

But Tsvangirai said
the biggest test of Mugabe's commitment to upholding promises of a free poll
will come when the MDC rolls out its campaigns in Mugabe's rural heartland.
Previously, Zanu-PF has declared rural areas "no-go areas" for the
opposition, violently crushing MDC campaigns.

While
amendments to security and media laws agreed between Zanu-PF and the MDC
sought to create a freer environment for campaigning, there is no real sign
the opposition will have it any easier this time round.

Last week, police chief Augustine Chihuri said he had given his officers
licence to use firearms against opposition activists he accused of planning
"street protests or Kenya-style riots if the ballot does not go in their
favour".

The same day Mugabe was launching his campaign, two
opposition candidates were being held by police in Mashonaland West,
Mugabe's home province, for holding what authorities said were illegal
gatherings.

While Zanu-PF officials, including Mugabe
himself, have pledged a violence-free election, at least two ruling-party
candidates have been accused of torching the homes of rivals over the past
week.

Access to public media has also been denied the
opposition, despite new electoral legislation compelling the country's sole
broadcaster, the ZBC, to give all parties fair coverage.

Last week, the ZBC banned voter education adverts taken out on radio and
television by an independent election monitoring group. Zanu-PF then stepped
up its own media campaign.

To hammer home its message that
the opposition is foreign-funded, Zanu-PF took out a full-page advertisement
in the Herald. The ad featured a banner saying "Zimbabwe not for sale" and a
copy of a letter from British Prime Minister Gordon Brown purportedly
confirming his government's funding of opposition groups.

Simba Makoni In a suburban house turned into his campaign
headquarters, Makoni last week wove between stacks of freshly printed
pamphlets bearing his picture and banners carrying his "New Dawn" campaign
slogan.

He chatted to members of his campaign team, many of
them in yellow T-shirts, as he prepared for his first foray outside Harare
and into Mugabe's rural stronghold to launch his
campaign.

But the frustration and exhaustion of some of the
40 members of the team were visible.

While Mugabe and
Tsvangirai have launched their campaigns before large crowds, Makoni's is
still struggling to get off the ground.

After a flurry of
media events following the announcement of his bid in early February, the
Makoni campaign has fallen off the radar, giving rise to speculation that it
is already running low on momentum and funding.

He has also
faced a series of setbacks, some of which reveal how difficult it can be to
run a campaign against Mugabe's well-oiled machine -- and how hard
Zimbabwe's economic crisis is hitting.

On Monday, the
car-hire company that had agreed to supply bakkies telephoned to cancel. The
few vehicles Makoni still had at his disposal were out of fuel. On Tuesday,
the company that had been printing Makoni's campaign material called to say
it could not continue as it had run out of paper.

Earlier, the Makoni campaign had even struggled to open a bank account as
banks had hesitated to take business from Makoni, aware of the trouble this
would bring them.

But Makoni's people insist they can still
mount a successful campaign in the four weeks that remain before the
elections. Spokesperson Godfrey Chanetsa told the M&G: "We had not
expected some of the bottlenecks, but we are sure we can get over this and
get ourselves on the road. We are still confident he will win by a
landslide."

In Hungry Zimbabwe, Pet Food as a Priority

NORTON, Zimbabwe -- Meals come only once a day for Helen Goremusandu,
67, and the six children she is raising. With prices for the most basic food
products increasingly beyond her reach, that daily meal often consists of
nothing more than boiled pumpkin leaves, washed down with
water.

About a mile away, a Zimbabwean government grain mill is churning
out a new product: Doggy's Delight. Announced by its creators in January,
the high-protein pet food is aimed at the lucrative export market, one of
the dwindling sources of foreign exchange in a collapsing
economy.

The shift away from making food for humans -- or for pigs,
chickens and other animals that humans might eat -- is just one of the more
striking distortions in an economy ravaged by government price controls,
hyperinflation and a severe food crisis. The World Food Program estimates
that 4.1 million Zimbabweans, about one-third of the population, will need
food aid this year.

Goremusandu is struggling to raise five
grandchildren and one great-grandchild on her monthly salary of 1.8 million
Zimbabwean dollars for part-time cleaning work -- worth about 30 cents in
U.S. currency at black-market rates. The finely ground cornmeal used in
sadza, the boiled white mush that is the nation's staple food, costs 12
million Zimbabwean dollars for an 11-pound bag.

"People are hungry,"
said Goremusandu, a widow with deep-set eyes and large, calloused hands.
"They should not be prioritizing making dog food when people are
hungry."

Zimbabwe was long regarded as the breadbasket of southern
Africa, exporting corn, tobacco and other agricultural products to a hungry
region. But the industry was dominated by the country's small minority of
whites, who controlled most of the prime land until 2000.

That year,
President Robert Mugabe, facing unprecedented political opposition,
encouraged landless black peasants to invade thousands of farms. Mugabe said
the resulting land redistribution would redress colonialism's historic
wrongs.

The industry soon collapsed, as the white farmers fled the
country and the land fell into the hands of Mugabe's political cronies or
was divided into tiny parcels tilled by former peasants with little
experience in commercial agriculture. Zimbabwe has received heavy doses of
international food aid ever since.

The loss of export earnings also
devastated the nation's currency, sending it into a spiral of hyperinflation
that has reached more than 100,000 percent. The government and businesses
struggle to find sources of foreign currency so they can import essential
products such as fuel, food and manufactured goods. Loans from international
institutions, including the International Monetary Fund, also must be repaid
in U.S. dollars or some other foreign currency.

Zimbabwe's economic
devastation has made it difficult even for skilled farmers to get tools,
fertilizers and seeds.

David Shumba, whose farm is about 30 miles away on
the outskirts of Harare, said he stopped raising thousands of chickens last
year because feed had become too hard to find and is thinking about giving
up pigs, too. Shumba said he bought 20 tons of water-damaged corn last year
to feed them, but hungry farm workers already have stolen a ton of
it.

Reaching into a bag of dried corn kernels turning brown from rot,
Shumba said, "Stuff like this, people eat now."

Across the country,
stores are half-empty because of the food shortages and government price
controls, imposed in June, that mean merchants would have to sell goods
below cost. But low-quality processed foods are plentiful, including a snack
called Curly Worlys that requires few quality agricultural
products.

A thriving black market offers many goods -- for those who
can afford to pay, at double the government price.

All Zimbabwean
farmers by law must sell their corn, wheat and other cereals to the
government's Grain Marketing Board, which also imports food for distribution
in Zimbabwe.

A spokesman for the Grain Marketing Board declined requests
for an interview, but Zimbabwe's Financial Gazette reported that several
other animal feeds were being developed along with Doggy's
Delight.

"In pursuit of our strategic commitment to expand commercial
activities through value addition, we have successfully developed and
launched our first animal feed, Doggy's Delight, which is targeted for the
export market," William Ndindana, a marketing board nutritionist, was quoted
as saying.

After that story appeared in January, police arrested
Ndindana and other top marketing board officials on charges of giving animal
feed and other supplies to agency employees and their friends, according to
news reports.

The amount of grain that goes into Doggy's Delight is far
from enough to alleviate Zimbabwe's chronic food shortages, but news of the
product's launch -- along with the criminal allegations against the board
executives -- has come to symbolize the Mugabe government's
priorities.

"They don't care about the people," said Renson Gasela, who
headed the Grain Marketing Board in the 1990s before becoming a leader in
the opposition Movement for Democratic Change. "I don't see how this
government could use something that's in daily demand for people as pet
food."

A Trail through
Two Cities

I
can honestly say, even on day 742 of my posting in Zimbabwe, that I never
overlook the beauty. As I'm brewing up in the kitchen, I see armies of
Abdim's storks impaling frogs, shadows 10 metres long cast by the dawn sun;
hooded weaver birds defying gravity with their nest-building and my ancient
Rhodesian Ridgeback, bounding around consumed with the joy of another bright
morning, impervious to the fact that the country he's named after no longer
exists. It's a great day for us both to be alive.

Sadly not all is
beautiful in Harare and as I cycle the 20km from home to the British
Embassy, I see much that is vile and immoral, alongside the decency and
kindness of a terribly put-upon people.

First I pass the turn-off for
Hatcliffe Extension: a township flattened by the Government in 2005 as a
collective punishment for electing an opposition MP. I remember standing
chatting with Savemore, a remarkably crinkley granny, in the ruins of her
house, a plastic sheet her only roof. She can't understand why she's been
targeted, as she's never voted. Her grown-up son and daughter-in-law died of
AIDS leaving her to look after four grandchildren, in her damp and feeble
shelter. God knows if she's still alive - and indeed God is the best chance
for her and her family. Churches are doing brave work rebuilding homes and
lives smashed by the Government in 2005, with a little help from the British
taxpayer.

Onwards up steep Crow Hill. As I labour along, gasping and
wheezing, everyone has a friendly word - wishing me a good morning and
asking after my health. (My health would be better if I lost some weight).
The humblest Zimbabwean is literate and fluent in several languages and the
universal practice of good manners never fails to lift my spirits. There is
a dark-side, of course. Female cyclists can be harassed with wolf-whistles
and rude suggestions; an echo of the silent crimewaves of rape and child
abuse, which shatter families and fuel the HIV epidemic.

Finally the
top of the hill - it's flat all the way now. There is a remarkable number of
people waiting at the junction for a bus. The buses aren't running too well
at the moment, because ZANU-PF has appropriated their fuel for
electioneering.

And there's another problem deterring people from
travelling. The police - plundering like modern Defarges - have set up a
roadblock a few hundred metres along. They are pulling over buses and making
passengers turn out their bags. Anyone carrying maize meal is threatened
with arrest for being an illegal trader. So people trying to take food to
their families on the other side of town don't want to risk boarding
transport just yet. They may have to wait for hours. As I cycle round the
roadblock the coppers give me a cheery wave - amazing how people can be so
happy while condemning their compatriots to hunger. But I suppose they are
desperate too trying to survive on a few pence a day.

Down Domboshawa
Road I cycle past waste ground. A group of Apostolic women pray in radiant,
white robes. Graffiti: "Vote MDC!" has been crossed out and replaced with
blood red letters: "Vote ZANU-PF or you will all starve." It's normal for
parties to play dirty tricks on each other, but the message is a chilling
reminder that the campaign leading up to the election here on 29 March will
be more than dirty - it will cost many lives.

Picking up speed, I head
into town on Borrowdale Road. I pass a particular rock, about the size of a
football. It sticks in my memory because one dark, rainy night a year ago
the Presidential guard pulled a man from his car, beat him, then hit him on
the head with that rock. His 'crime' was failing to pull his car
sufficiently far off the road as the motorcade roared by. He was lucky to
survive. The truck carrying these brutes then drove dangerously fast to
catch up with the presidential limousine and had a horrific head-on
collision. L'État, c'est moi.

A right turn into quiet Fifth Street. I
pass a hospital and remember a sunny day when I handed over a generator paid
for by the British Embassy Community Projects fund. We do what we can to
help the people left behind as the economy crashes. Again there are darker
memories, of March 11 last year when dozens of civic and opposition leaders
were brought here after being tortured by the regime. Doctors braved death
threats to help them - it is a far far better thing they do than I have ever
done! The state media accuses us of using British resources to bring down
the Government. In fact our assistance goes to victims like those tortured
on March 11. We have nothing to apologise for.

Nearly there now.
Avenues lined with dense purple jacarandas. Parents carrying children tied
with towels to their backs. I pass State House, dripping with gaudy
furnishings. I can almost imagine the residents to be Louis and Marie,
baking huge cakes to celebrate their endless birthdays, which the people
never eat.

The Embassy. Two floors of a failing office block right in the
centre of town. There's a power cut, so no traffic lights. I weave my bike
through gridlocked chaos. The lifts are out so I drag my sweaty blubber up
six flights. As I get into reception a stick-thin woman gets painfully to
her feet and introduces herself as Esther. Can I look at her application for
funding? I could really murder a shower and a coffee (and maybe a doughnut),
but there's a spring of hope in Esther's eyes, rather than the usual winter
of despair. She'd like a few billion dollars - which luckily translates into
little more than a hundred pounds - to set up a small peanut-butter factory
in her area for HIV+ people (of whom she is one). The scheme is well
thought-out, practical and offers a chance to a group of people who will
soon return to dust if they can't make a living. I agree to the grant on the
spot. I hope she doesn't think I spend my whole day in crumpled shorts and a
sweaty t-shirt.

After meeting Esther I check out the notice on the
Embassy door. The exchange rate for a pound has gone up from $12 Million to
$35 Million. Damn. I've got $500 Million in my pocket, so I've just lost
£25. We live in the age of foolishness here.

Finally through the door
and nearly in my office. It's 8.05am, I'm almost on time, the day's just
starting, but I feel that I've lived my whole life in Zimbabwe - a country
with everything before it and nothing before it - in the course of my
journey to work.

We've decided to expand this blog from just my
observations to those of other members of the Embassy. We hope this will
enable us to give a broader picture of life in Zimbabwe and our work
here.

Party backs Mugabe challenger Simba Makoni

Senior members of Zimbabwe's ruling Zanu-PF
party have publicly backed Simba Makoni, Robert Mugabe's presidential
challenger.

Mr Makoni's hopes of securing the presidency in
elections later this month depend on him splitting Zanu-PF and gaining the
support of figures who control sections of the state and party
machinery.

The more backing he earns, the harder it will become for
Mr Mugabe to rig the vote, as he is widely believed to have done in the last
presidential election in 2002.

At a rally yesterday in
Highfield, a suburb of Harare, thousands gathered to see Mr Makoni share the
stage with Edgar Tekere, who co-founded Zanu-PF with Mr Mugabe.

"Let's get Zimbabwe working again in the spirit of national reconciliation,"
said Mr Makoni. "There's enough space for all of us under the Zimbabwe
sun."

Several veterans of the independence war, who have
traditionally been fanatically loyal to Mr Mugabe, used the rally to come
out in public support of Mr Makoni.

Most significantly, several
aides to Solomon Mujuru, the former army commander believed to be backing Mr
Makoni, were present.

One said Mr Mujuru feels uneasy about
publicly opposing Mr Mugabe while his wife Joyce is still vice-president of
Zimbabwe.

On Saturday at a rally in Bulawayo, Dumiso Dabengwa, a
former government minister and a member of the Zanu-PF politburo, also
announced his support for Mr Makoni. "It is time they give way to a new
leadership that can face up to the challenges facing our country," he
said.

More party members formerly loyal to Mr Mugabe are expected
to go public as the campaign intensifies in rural areas.

Mr
Makoni is campaigning on a platform "to get Zimbabwe working again", seeking
to capitalise on Mr Mugabe's destruction of the economy, which has left
inflation higher than 100,000 per cent, unemployment at 80 per cent, and
millions in need of food aid.

Zimbabwe - Is it fashion or is it the people
that matter?

Mens News DailyZvakwana

March 2, 2008 at 8:02 pm

There may well be so-called
heavyweights leaving the zanupf-Mugabe sinking ship and running to a new
home in the zanupf-Makoni faction. Who wouldn't leave this sinking ship?
With self inflicted inflation running at 100,000% and rising, exponentially
collapsing exchange rates, empty supermarket shelves, 95% unemployment,
widespread starvation, a refugee crisis of massive proportions and so many
other world record negative catastrophic statistics, it's quite logical to
see the writing on the wall. In any event, it can be safely assumed that
there is little left at Mugabe's patronage trough because these so-called
heavy-weights have already licked it dry. It's time to re-invent and time
for a facelift. The pigs are looking for a new sty and a new trough in which
to feed.

Enter the new face of zanupf and the new love-child of some in
the diplomatic circuit. Enter Simba Makoni.

So why are they punting
Makoni, who after all, has held very senior positions in both the regime
itself and the highest decision making body, the politburo, right from the
very beginning? These are the structures and men that have destroyed every
Zimbabwean's hopes and dreams and laid waste what was once prosperous
country.

What do Zimbabweans really think about all this? What are the
realities on the ground?

It's a numbers game, so let's look at who is
getting the numbers on the ground. In Zimbabwe, election rallies tell a
completely different story to the newsflashes in current
circulation.

Over this past weekend, Simba Makoni held 2 rallies, his
launch in Bulawayo (Zimbabwe's second largest city) and Harare, the capital.
The attendances were a dismal 4000 and 2000 respectively.

A week
before, Morgan Tsvangirai launched his election campaign in the rural town
of Mutare in the Eastern highlands of Zimbabwe. 60,000 people attended this
rally. This past weekend he held rallies in the small rural towns of Bindura
and Shamva. The attendances were 15,000 and 3000 respectively.

What's
happening is that Makoni's new zanupf home isn't translating where it counts
- support on the ground. Tsvangirai hasn't gone near the major centres yet
he gets 3000 to a rally in the hick village of Shamva. Makoni's zanupf
faction isn't going to see the light of day come election time if this trend
continues.

What seems to be completely misunderstood and certainly not
being reported is that the people of Zimbabwe are sick and tired of Mugabe
and his zanupf. They are tired of the dictatorship and they are tired of the
violence and abuse by this regime. In whatever shape or form zanupf attempts
to morph in to, it's not going to wash anymore.

The people want
change and would have got change years ago if past elections weren't rigged.
This time, they are taking no chances and they know that rigging is going to
be much harder this time round. Many outsiders may be fooled into believing
what has undoubtedly become fashionable in diplomatic circles, dubbed "The
Makoni Factor". It's almost like a Clint Eastwood western. But what's
missing is something significant is being overlooked. It's people on the
ground that really matter. The people can see the Makoni mirage for what it
is. It's just another zanuPF get-out-of-jail card and an insidious attempted
facelift for zanupf to stay in power. At the end of the day, it's all about
trust. Mugabe, zanupf or any combination thereof is no longer
acceptable.

If will of the people prevails, Tsvangirai will be Zimbabwe's
next President. The writing is on the wall already.

Rumours on road to Zimbabwe
election

A
HELIUM balloon hoisted by Zimbabweans at the Beit Bridge border post to
protest against President Robert Mugabe's recent expensive birthday bash in
the border town read, "You've had your cake, now beat it".

Even as
some lucky Zimbabweans left the challenges of 150000%-plus inflation behind
for a few hours to tuck into the president's trillion-(Zim)-dollar feast,
the harsh realities of life in the country still lurked beyond the decorated
walls of the venue.

Bold statements by presidential candidates in the
country, who began campaigning at the weekend for the March 29 poll, make it
seem as if Zimbabweans may finally have a real chance at getting Mugabe to
beat it. The excitement injected into the election process with the entry of
former Zanu (PF) politburo member Simba Makoni, now an independent
candidate, is palpable despite the scepticism many feel about his ruling
party origins. Suddenly the moribund and tiresome process of a poll that,
for nearly three decades, has been held exclusively to rubber-stamp
successive terms for Mugabe, has become a national
preoccupation.

This is reflected not just in a sudden increase in the
number of people being registered to vote, but also in the number of
conspiracy theories doing the rounds.

Zimbabweans have every
right to be suspicious of unfolding events - as an electorate they have been
bullied by the state for many years and been lied to and manipulated by the
government's propaganda machine for as long as they can
remember.

Makoni's candidacy has raised multiple questions
that have yet to be answered. His support base is unclear, the extent of his
backers even less so, although former home affairs minister Dumiso Dabengwa,
also a member of the ruling politburo, made his support known at the
weekend.

"If the general is behind this, let's see him," a Zimbabwean
friend said over lunch last week, referring to Gen Solomon Mujuru, former
head of the army and widely believed to be wanting to satisfy his own
political ambition through a stalking horse. Mujuru is playing his cards
close to his chest. Presumably he, and other unspecified Zanu (PF) rebels
who are said to back Makoni, are hedging their bets at this
stage.

Zimbabwe newspapers are reporting that the police are after
Mujuru for his alleged involvement with banker James Mushore, who has been
charged with exchange control violations. This sounds like a typical Mugabe
strategy to neutralise political opponents.

Another theory doing
the rounds is that the Makoni candidacy is the product of an informal deal
by some key members of the Southern African Development Community (including
SA) as part of a negotiated solution. Makoni has never before exhibited the
kind of boldness that requires one to step out of the embrace of a ruthless
dictator and take him on. This suggests that he has more than one powerful
backer - and who better than the president himself.

Some believe that
the focus of mediation efforts that have publicly involved only the
opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) have become a smokescreen
for another behind-the-scenes deal - one more agreeable to Mugabe. This
theory suggests that Makoni will win with the nod from Mugabe in return for
immunity from prosecution. The old man will stand down and run things from
behind the scenes.

A more likely scenario is that Mugabe will win and
bring Makoni, as an independent, into a government of national unity (that
will, however, exclude the MDC), thus restoring at least some of the
credibility required to unlock international reconstruction funding under
Makoni's direction. Yet other people (mostly those funding him) believe that
this time around Morgan Tsvangirai will win the election, unencumbered by
the breakaway faction of the party, which has thrown its weight behind
Makoni.

Of course none of this might be true - or all of it, to
differing degrees.

But there is also another theory. If Mugabe really
wants to win, he will. Everything else is wishful
thinking.

Games is director of Africa @ Work, a research and
publishing company.

Just so you can see he propaganda being fed to Zimbabweans...

Zanu-PF
Must Rectify, Relaunch Revolution

The Herald (Harare) Published
by the government of Zimbabwe

OPINION3 March 2008Posted to the
web 3 March 2008

Reason WafawarovaHarare

THE harmonised
elections set for the 29th of this March offer, on the one hand, a massive
challenge to Zimbabwe's agrarian revolution - as there are apparent danger
signs on the path of the revolution - and, on the other hand, offer the
Government an opportunity to carry out an honest revision, rectification and
relaunching of the revolution for the ultimate victory that lies in the
total economic emancipation of the poor masses of Zimbabwe.

The three Rs
are a direct borrowing by this writer from the current strategy adopted by
President Hugo Chavez Frias of Venezuela where "revision, rectification and
relaunch" of the Bolivarian revolution has been his call - all in the wake
of threats to the Venezuelan revolution - threats that have striking
similarities with those faced by Zimbabwe's agrarian
revolution.

Since December 2, when President Chavez's proposed
constitutional reforms were thwarted by a referendum defeat, the U.S.-backed
Venezuelan opposition, together with the entire US imperialism machinery -
have each seen the defeat as the green light to push forward their plans to
destabilise Chavez's government.

This is reminiscent of the momentum
gained by British imperialism and the Western-backed Zimbabwean opposition
MDC in 2000 when a similar draft constitution proposal was defeated in a
referendum. For Zimbabwe, the MDC leadership went to the extent of
appointing some people for diplomatic postings as they prematurely wrote off
the ruling party as dead and buried before the general election. Of course,
the referendum defeat only awakened the revolutionary Zanu-PF into action as
they embarked on massive restructuring of the party and also on that
memorable land redistribution programme. The ruling party rose up like the
giant of the pre-independence era and went on to win the parliamentary
election that year, the presidential election in 2002 and another
parliamentary election in 2005 - each time rendering apparent weakening
effects on the disintegrating opposition.

The Bolivarian revolution -
as the process of change led by socialist President Hugo Chavez is known -
has got growing internal problems, largely coming from a strengthening of
the rightwing of the Chavista movement calling itself the "endogenous
right". These are the people within Chavez's own Chavista movement who are
advocating reforms to the Bolivarian revolution - reforms that advocate a
re-establishment of links with capitalism.

This rightwing group
within the Chavista movement has become the most serious threat to the
Bolivarian revolution - far more dangerous than the US-backed right wing
opposition.

It is apparent that Zimbabwe's agrarian revolution is facing
similar threats from a similar group of rightwing reformists whose loudest
manifestation has been Simba Makoni of the independent presidential
candidate fame, or is it infamy?

These reformists in Venezuela want a
Chavista revolution without socialism, in other words without Chavez - they
want an anti-capitalist revolution that does not break with capitalism. In
Zimbabwe the internal rightwing within Zanu-PF want a land revolution that
pleases capitalism - a land reform programme that does not break with
imperialism. They want an agrarian reform programme without the masses - one
without the pro-peasant Robert Mugabe - a revolution applauded by
imperialism. This is what we hear Makoni preaching at his Press conferences.
It is what Morgan Tsvangirai was struggling to put across at Sakubva Stadium
when he launched his party's election manifesto.

While the 2000 draft
constitution for Zimbabwe sought to redistribute white-occupied arable land,
Chavez's constitutional reforms sought to institutionalise greater popular
power and to increase restrictions on capitalists to the benefit of the
working people of Venezuela.

Just like was the case with Zimbabwe in
2000, the capitalist-owned private media responded by launching a campaign
based on lies and disinformation aimed at confusing the common man in
Venezuela.

The damaging negative media campaign was, for both Zimbabwe
and Venezuela - reinforced by economic sabotage - contributing if not
leading to shortages of basic goods such as milk for Venezuela, fuel,
foodstuffs, water, electricity and cash for Zimbabwe.

The
Western-backed opposition in Venezuela was able to stoke the discontent that
still exists among the

over such problems as corruption and
bureaucratism. The discontent was whipped up to the extent that nearly three
million people who voted for Chavez in the 2006 presidential election
abstained in the referendum, handing the opposition its first electoral
victory since Chavez came to power in 1998.

The Western-backed
opposition in Zimbabwe is clearly trying to emulate their brothers in
treachery in Venezuela by stoking the discontent that exists among the urban
poor over problems such as corruption, inflation, food shortages, erratic
power supplies and water problems. These are the problems upon which the MDC
has based its campaign for the harmonised elections. Tsvangirai is of the
opinion that whipping up the emotions of these poor urbanites is good
politics that can earn him an election victory.

Imperialist
offensive

The uninvited and unwelcome lecture on free and fair elections
by US Ambassador to Zimbabwe James McGee - a lecture arrogantly delivered to
Zimbabweans at the end of February - was just an attempt to build up on the
hardships of the country for the benefit of imperial domination.

In
Venezuela, there are similar efforts where a renewed US offensive has been
unleashed with the aim of isolating Chavez internationally, and also to
undermine the process of Latin American integration spearheaded by
Venezuela. These are similar efforts being made by the US and Britain in the
attempt to set up Sadc and other African countries against
Zimbabwe.

A key part of this strategy has been to fuel tension between
the targeted country and its neighbours - the way it has worked with Chad
and Sudan in the Darfur crisis and also the way it's working with Colombia
and Venezuela over the issue of the Colombian civil conflict involving the
Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) - Colombia's largest leftwing
guerrilla group and the pro-America Colombian government.

The US
keeps sending its officials like Admiral Michael Mullen, Pentagon's joint
chief of staff; and John Walters, the US director of National Drug Control;
to Colombia on missions to make baseless claims that Hugo Chavez materially
supports FARC.

John Walters has gone further to accuse Chavez as "a major
facilitator of the international drug trade" an accusation that serves as a
sharp reminder to what the US did with Manuel Noriega of Panama in
1989.

South Africa could long have played Colombia on Zimbabwe had it not
been for President Mbeki's pan-Africanist resilience. The major reason
Tsvangirai and his Western backers are livid with South Africa's policy of
quiet diplomacy is the failure of Western efforts to fan the flames of
conflict between South Africa and Zimbabwe. Of course, they will always
claim loudly that they are dead worried about the welfare of Zimbabweans -
never mind how ludicrous it ever sounds.

For Zimbabwe, the most
serious imperialist attack has been the illegal economic sanctions that were
mobilised by Britain in retaliation to the reclamation of white-held land by
the masses of Zimbabweans. These sanctions have come via ZIDERA for the US,
the blocking of credit lines for the IMF and the World Bank and a general
embargo against Zimbabwe for the Commonwealth and the EU.

For
Venezuela, similar measures have been put in place as court orders have been
obtained by ExxonMobil, backed by the US State Department, to freeze US$12
billion worth of assets of Venezuelan state oil company PDVSA, in both
British and Dutch courts - a move Chavez has described as an "economic
war".

ExxonMobil is retaliating after Chavez's government nationalised
the Orinoco oil belt where the multinational company had invested heavily.
PDVSA is the major financer to Venezuela's social projects and the broader
aim is to cripple these projects and send a warning to other Latin American
countries that might be considering resource nationalisation. The warning is
simple - imperialism will fight back.

Destabilisation

The
known extra-parliamentary destabilisation by the US-led Western alliance
usually involves the stepping up of economic sabotage by the capitalists - a
style reminiscent of the sabotage suffered by the leftwing Chilean
government of Salvador Allende in 1973. The sabotage was a precursor to the
US-backed military coup by General Augusto Pinochet later that
year.

This campaign involves the hoarding, speculation and smuggling of
food, contributing to shortages. Of course, this is always combined with a
virulent media campaign aimed at fuelling discontent.

The opposition
in Zimbabwe and Venezuela is capitalising on the discontent within the urban
population and they are both focused on networking to spread perfidious
rumours meant to mobilise the people against the respective incumbent
governments.

Eva Golinger of Venezuela recently revealed that the
networking for the spread of rumours is funded by Usaid, a US
government-funded organisation.

In Zimbabwe, this rumour machine is
funded through a whole spectrum of civic organisations and a growing number
of online publications - some of them with a strict editorial policy of
publishing anything but the truth.

In the wake of this challenge,
Presidents Mugabe and Chavez have called for greater unity within their
respective revolutions.

Divisions

It would appear both the
Zanu-PF-led Zimbabwe agrarian revolution and the Venezuelan Bolivarian
revolution are facing the challenge of divisions involving pro-capitalist
economic blocs - for Venezuela there is an element of individuals with
important military influence being part of the problem. For Zimbabwe, the
face of this pro-capitalist bloc has been Makoni, a man who claims to have
powerful backing within the ranks of the Zimbabwean revolution. He has,
however, continuously failed to substantiate his claims - although the
opposition rumour machine has so far significantly benefited from the
speculation created by Makoni's claims.

For both Venezuela and Zimbabwe,
there is the element of a more radical left, strong among the grassroots as
well as among some major elements within the State - an element that wants
to deepen the process of empowerment and to overcome corruption and
bureaucratism - them being the two major impediments holding back the
advance of the revolution.

The reclamation of land by the masses of
Zimbabwe was a major victory for the empowerment of poor people just like
the agrarian and nationalisation projects have been for Venezuela. However,
problems such as sanctions-induced suffering, a divided workers' movement, a
divided ideological focus as well as a growing gap between rhetoric and
reality - all have meant that these problems have only been exacerbated to
the advantage of the imperialists and their teams of lap-dog politicians in
both Zimbabwe and Venezuela.

This has also meant that the rightwing
element within each of the two countries' revolutions has somewhat gained
momentum to the detriment of the revolution.

In Venezuela they called
for a "Yes" vote during the day yet they spent each night discouraging
voting for the radical constitutional reforms that threatened their material
interests. In Zimbabwe, some of them openly castigate Makoni as a renegade
sellout by day yet they are spending each night encouraging people to
sympathise with the dissident former Politiburo member.

This is why
the revolution is calling for a comprehensive revision, rectification and
relaunching. There are danger signs ahead and this is the only way to
pre-empt the imperialist assaults lying ahead.

Class Struggle

In
Venezuela the endogenous right is attempting to take over the Chavista
party, the United Socialist Party of Venezuela (PSUV) just like Zimbabwe's
Makoni and Kudzai Mbudzi were initially claiming that their project was
about "changing the bus driver in order to ensure the safety of
passengers".

Such divisions reflect the class struggles within the
revolutionary process. There is an element of conflict between the left and
the right within the revolution - not the traditional right as is found in
the MDC and the opposition in Venezuela but a revolutionary
"rightwing".

In each revolution there is always an attraction of those
who certainly fight imperialism for standing in their way towards aspired
riches yet they definitely do not fight for national liberation, that is,
for the cause of poor people.

These are people who vainly believe
that breaking imperialism or US domination can assist economic development
within a capitalist framework. They would rather create state capitalism
where they, by virtue of holding political office, become the new owners of
capital and the new exploiters of the masses.

Needless to say, these
people have to contend with the revolutionary element of radicals, for whom
nothing short of a thoroughgoing social revolution will solve the needs of
the oppressed majority.

The problem with this local class of capitalists
is that they reinforce the imperialist cause - in the process pushing the
revolution further left and thereby creating more challenges and widening
the gap between rhetoric and reality - in the process giving momentum to
imperialist forces.

This is the homework for the 4 000 delegates who
received instructions on how to sell Zanu-PF's manifesto last Friday. The
reason President Mugabe reiterated the importance of admitting to failures
and not promising unachievable goals to the electorate is precisely to deal
with this gap between rhetoric and reality. This is part of the revision,
rectification and relaunching of the revolution that is needed.

In
this relaunch there is need for integrity, honesty and commitment. There is
need to decisively deal with corruption, also a big problem in Venezuela.
There is need to get rid of all counter-revolutionaries and to rid the
revolution of the capitalist element. There is need to transfer all power
back to the people, not the Simba Makoni way which says "Simba kuvanhu" as
in Simba his name but in the real sense of the term where people are
organised to monitor social projects and create their own sense of
accountability.

A people's revolution cannot be stolen or killed but
it can be delayed and March 29 is the day for all the revolutionary people
of the Republic of Zimbabwe to come forward in defence of the revolution.
This is no time to listen to the baiting voices from the right. Zimbabwe
cannot be given away for a paltry US$10 billion which Tsvangirai baselessly
claims is adequate to solve all the country's problems.

Imagine a world without
Zanu PF!

zimbabwejournalists.com

3rd Mar 2008 12:03 GMT

By Chenjerai Chitsaru

SENIOR citizens will be
familiar with the following passage:"On each landing, opposite the lift
shaft, the poster with the enormous face gazed from the wall. It was one of
those pictures which are so contrived that the eyes follow you about when
you move.

"BIG BROTHER IS WATCHING, the caption said."

Over the
years of our independence, there has sprouted a small portion of the
population which, almost ritualistically, imagines a Zimbabwe without Zanu
PF - before every general and presidential election. There are mostly senior
citizens too, burdened with this enormous optimism that one day, after such
an election, Zanu PF, the party which has run he country since 1980, will
have been ground into dust.

A few weeks before 29 March, this same group
of slightly geriatric optimists, has resurfaced. This time, their optimism
is almost overwhelming. The electoral deck is so loaded against Zanu PF,
they believe the chances of the party winning are almost
negligible.

The basis of their upbeat mood is so blindingly visible it
hurts the eyes: the open rebellion in Zanu PF, which has reduced President
Robert Mugabe to an old man so furious with himself he can only use
expletives to demonise his imagined enemies.

Perhaps they are not in
his imagination, these enemies. One of them is Simba Makoni, a former
protégé. Another is Dumiso Dabengwa, not a protégé but someone he must have
imagined he had taught a lesson he would never forget: a long spell in jail
for daring to challenge him.

By the end of this week, more "enemies" may
have crawled out of the woodwork: young, old and middle-aged former diehard
Zanu PF zealots now so disillusioned with Mugabe, they are prepared, one
again, to lay down their lives for something they believe in:
change.

Most of them had been ready to pay the ultimate sacrifice years
ago, during the struggle for independence. They are ready to do it again for
exactly the same cause, a new form of independence, an independence without
Zanu PF anywhere in sight.

Not many citizens have ever consciously
imagined a world without Zanu PF. The party has engineered, in the minds of
the population in general, a permanent existence, a life in which Zanu PF is
a palpable presence, a Zimbabwe in which Zanu PF is a permanent fixture,
like the nose on your face.

For a while, after independence, many
were willing to tolerate this appendage on their bodies. But as the years
passed, it became an intolerable intrusion, something so ugly a few of them
sought to chop it off from their faces, even though this might entail
transforming them into monsters.

The people who really believe Zanu PF is
on its last legs, because of what Simba Makoni and others have initiated
have faith in the courage of the Zimbabwean people to dare to hope for a
future without Zanu PF.

In their estimation, Zanu PF, from being the
catalyst in the struggle for independence from colonialism, has turned out
to be the albatross around their necks. It will not allow them free rein as
citizens, unless they are willing to pray at its altar and to "forsake all
other gods", even the gods of freedom of expression and
association.

In the 28 years Zanu PF has been in power, it has chipped
away at the people's dignity, forcing them into political servitude, forcing
them to live in permanent fear of this party which was helped to achieve the
goal of liberation by all the people of this country, but will now not
accord them equal rights.

Apart from the violence it has inflicted on
the people, Zanu PF has shown scant regard for their dignity, forcing them
to attend its meetings, or endure physical punishment for their
temerity.Moreover, even their livelihoods, never given priority by the
colonialists, have not risen appreciably since 1980.

With its usual
impunity, the party introduced Murambatsvina, then launched the price blitz.
These measures were aimed specifically at the poor, although Zanu PF tried
to disguise them as being targeted at "enemies of the people".

Even
the measures introduced by the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe, ostensibly aimed at
ridding the poor of citizens preying on their meager earnings, brought such
pain and misery to ordinary people they called the governor, Gideon Gono,
nasty names behind his back.

Yet the recent Zanu PF meeting during which
the names of the party's candidates for the elections were announced,
President Mugabe looked supremely self-confident, as if there was no revolt
against him, as if Makoni's challenge was a flash in the pan, a
nuisance.

Joseph Msika, one of his vice-presidents, in a rambling speech
which was punctuated by odd silences and pauses, attacked the newspapers for
alleging he and others were backing Makoni.

If there was truly no
smoke without the fire the media was pointing out, why would he
bother?

And if Mugabe was utterly unruffled by Makoni's defection, why
did he call him nasty names? The statesman's response would have been a
quiet, sombre assessment of what had motivated Makoni to rebel and wished
the young man well.

It will always be difficult for those who wish
Makoni well to place his chances of success very high, without warning of
the obvious impediments. Has he had enough time to prepare? Has he the
resources to cover the entire country with his candidates for the House of
Assembly and the Senate?

And who can ignore Morgan Tsvangirai?

He
has become a seasoned trouper. His formation of the MDC has solid structures
and there is ready identification of its candidates, men and women who have
either been in Parliament for a number of years, or have featured in
elections since 2000.

For the two formations of the MDC to triumph over
Zanu PF will take a lot of courage and the ability to organize more
effectively than during the last two parliamentary and presidential
elections.

What may inhibit voters from turning out in their millions is
the admission by the MDC that Zanu PF reneged in its earlier commitment to
implement the agreements negotiated with the aid of President Thabo
Mbeki.

Constitutional amendments designed to "democratise" the electoral
process were not instituted as comprehensively as the MDC had demanded.
Tendai Biti, for the Tsvangirai formation, was particularly scathing in his
condemnation of Zanu PF's failure to honour its part of the
bargain.

In still agreeing to participate in the election, in spite of
these discrepancies in the implementation of the amendments, the MDC showed
itself to be so desperate to remain "relevant" it didn't mind not aiming for
the big prize - victory to the extent of forming the next
government.

Yet these elections are going to be historic, one way or the
other. Simba Makoni's role is going to be crucial, especially if - as
expected after Dumiso Dabangwa's public defection from Zanu PF - other Zanu
PF politburo heavyweights decide it is time to try and live their lives
without the presence of Zanu PF being a constant reminder of their political
mortality.

Mugabe himself must know that, although his slogan that "
Zimbabwe will never be a colony again", may still ring true, another slogan
may be heard loud and clear throughout the land: Zanu PF will never be the
centre of political power again.

For most ordinary people, a Zimbabwe
without Zanu PF could turn out to be a Godsend, a chance for the country to
regain its status as the breadbasket of the region and a chance to achieve
for it the democracy that the early freedom fighters - Herbert Chitepo,
Masotsha Ndlovu and others - had envisaged for it. The passage at the
beginning is from 1984.

Tekere says Smith was
better than Mugabe

zimbabwejournalists.com

3rd Mar 2008 12:12 GMT

By David Baxter

MUTARE - Edgar Tekere, a
former Zanu PF strongman and a luminary of Zimbabwe's war of liberation,
says the regime of Ian Smith was far less brutal to dissenting voices than
the post independence government led by Robert Mugabe.

Tekere told a
political gathering in this eastern border city that during the struggle for
independence the Smith regime never ill-treated opposition activisits in the
manner in which Mugabe's government does.

He was referring to the brutal
beatings, by the police in their custody, of MDC leader Morgan Tsvangirai
and several of his party activists last year.

Tsvangirai and his fellow
supporters were brutally assaulted by police while in custody after they
were rounded up during a prayer meeting at Zimbabwe Grounds.

MDC
activists such as Grace Kwinjeh and Sekai Holland had to seek medical
treatment in South Africa.

"Ian Smith's regime never treated us in
the manner in which Mugabe is doing to the opposition," the tough-talking
politician said. "That's the legacy of Zimbabwean governance."

Smith
was the prime minister of Rhodesia before it was liberated in 1980 and
renamed Zimbabwe. Smith's regime was notorious for jailing and torturing
independence activists during the turbulent 1970's.

But Tekere says
such treatment, which nationalists endured under Smith, was far from what
the Mugabe's government was doing to those opposed to his iron-grip
rule.

Tekere, a former Zanu PF secretary general and Cabinet Minister, is
contesting the March 29 polls as a senatorial candidate for
Dangamvura-Chikanga, Mutare Central and Mutare North.

He is standing
as an independent but representing Simba Makoni, the independent
presidential candidate.

The fiery politician castigated Mugabe for
boasting that he had degrees of violence saying such behavior had damaged
the image of the country.

Tekere said if Mugabe were to be removed at the
March polls international investors would immediately descend on Zimbabwe
-even before they were told who would have taken over.

"If they hear
that Mugabe is no longer there, without being told who has taken over, they
will run to this country and things will start moving," he said amid
applause.

Dictator to
be

The
recent developments in Zimbabwe dispel the notion propagated by the media
that President Robert Mugabe wins elections only through rigging, violence
and intimidation.

It is becoming undeniable that Morgan Tsvangirai's lust
for both money and power is the reason why the vigilant people of Zimbabwe
prefer to stay with the devil they know.

The once lauded Movement for
Democratic Change (MDC) split a few years ago when Tsvangirai insisted, for
no better reason than advice from Britain, that the MDC should not contest
the parliamentary elections being held at the time. This led Zimbabweans to
conclude he is a power-monger who is hungry for donations from
Britain.

When Simba Makoni created an opportunity for a better
political assessment and possible coalition in the fight against Zanu (PF),
Tsvangirai went on the rampage, accusing Makoni of being "an old wine in a
new bottle". When the other faction of the MDC seeks talks on some form of
coalition to force regime change, he rejects the idea outright so that he
continues to be the sole ruler of the opposition. Aren't these signs of a
dictator in the making?

With the opposition in Zimbabwe now
divided further into three parts, Mugabe need little effort, let alone
electionrigging, to march to victory.

Tsvangirai is becoming a
political liability and, sooner rather than later, he will be shown the
door. Just like Fidel Castro, Mugabe will be the second leader in the world
who, despite the wishes of the w est, will not only retire on his own terms
but will leave the US and Britain with egg on their faces
.

Views on Dr Simba Makoni

By Precious Shumba,
Harare

Since Presidential hopeful Simba Makoni announced his intentions
to run against his mentor Robert Gabriel Mugabe on Tuesday 5 February 2008,
the Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) under Morgan Tsvangirai and some
civic leaders have issued insincere statements, driven by political jealousy
and fear of the future.

Opposition to Mugabe did not start in 1999 at
the formation of the MDC but there are Zanu PF officials who have openly
opposed Mugabe's corrupt dictatorship. We need to recall that Edgar Tekere
stopped Mugabe's one-party state; Margaret Dongo exposed electoral
irregularities in the nation's voting system, Nkosana Moyo resigned after
failing to agree with Mugabe's rogue politics, Jonathan Moyo and Emmerson
Mnangagwa attempted to change the Zanu PF presidium ahead of a Zanu PF
congress, and several others highlighted in the media.

It is my
considered view that Morgan Tsvangirai has been inconsistent in his bid to
oust Mugabe since the decision to split the main MDC along tribal and minute
issues ahead of the senate poll in October 2005. He has demonstrated
absolute failure to reconcile divergent interests and gel them into one
formidable unit that can fight against an opposition of Mugabe's
character.

As a registered voter, l am not interested to know who has
been in the trenches for long against Mugabe but who can possibly revive
this ailing economy and serve the nation in a transparent and accountable
manner. I have witnessed and experienced how some of Tsvangirai's
lieutenants hate opinions different from theirs and how they want to be the
only voice against tyranny.

Zimbabweans are a mature citizenry;
capable of deciding who they want to vote for without anyone trying to
manipulate how they must behave in public or what they must say to the
media, for fear of being labelled. They have gone past the stage of
accepting any information that portrays Zanu PF as the only source of our
national problems. There are some corrupt officials in the MDC and civil
society just like in Zanu PF but there are also others who are real, genuine
and honest in both parties. Citizens want to know how the MDC and the rest
of civil society benefit or suffer in the current situation of 'guided
democracy' under Mugabe's dictatorship. Whose mandate is the civil society
serving if it starts to decide which political party citizens must mistrust
or endorse?

It is public knowledge that the nation is experiencing a
national water crisis; the Zimbabwe economy has collapsed, 80 percent of the
population is unemployed, declining life expectancy due to entrenched
poverty, and declining health standards, corruption, political manipulation
and the breakdown in the rule of law. More so, Zimbabweans have witnessed
how some officials in the opposition and the civil society have grown
richer, drive state-of-the-art vehicles, live like kings yet all over in the
high-density suburbs, the levels of poverty have intensified. The difference
between them and Mugabe's ruling elite is invisible.

The electorate
must demand accountability and audit the performances of all legislators
since they were elected in 2005 before giving them new terms.

The open
hostility to Makoni's latest bid for the presidency has the potential to end
their democracy projects that only benefit a few while the majority of
Zimbabweans languish in abject poverty. Initiatives must benefit the
majority citizenry and not only bring to us matters already decided for our
procedural endorsement, disguised as consultations.

The electorate will
decide who best represents them without coercion. No amount of deception by
the State-controlled media and or panicking leaders will deter the
electorate.

Simba Makoni, like the MDC and some civic society leaders
have a democratic right to challenge Mugabe for the presidency. There is no
single organisation, party or individual with the sole preserve to oppose
Mugabe. You never know what the electorate will do; maybe they will endorse
Makoni ahead of Tsvangirai and Mugabe.

President Tsvangirai
addresses over 15 000 supporters at Chipadze Stadium in Bindura

Harare - THE MDC kick started its election
campaign ahead of 29 March elections across the country, which saw President
Morgan Tsvangirai addressing over 15 000 supporters in Bindura on
Sunday.

Other parliamentary, senatorial and council MDC candidates
addressed large gatherings at various venues across Zimbabwe.

At
Chipadze Stadium in Bindura, Mashonaland Central province, President
Tsvangirai told the gathering that the 29 March elections were a chance for
every Zimbabwean to vote for a change that they believed in.

"This
year's elections are a chance for everyone to vote for a new beginning and a
change that you believe in and trust in.

"For the country to come out of
its current mess, every Zimbabwean should go out and vote for a better
future of our country and our children," President Tsvangirai to the
gathering.

President Tsvangirai also unveiled at the rally all the MDC
candidates from Mashonaland Central province that are participating in the
elections.

The election campaigns come after the party successful
launched its 2008 election campaign and unveiled its election manifesto
Sakubva Stadium in Mutare, Manicaland province were over 60 000 people
attended the launch.

After the Chipadze rally, President Tsvangirai
addressed another well attended rally at Chakonda Business Centre in Shamva
also in Mashonaland Central province.

Over 10 000 people attended the
rally in Shamva.

Other successful rallies where held by various
parliamentary, council and senatorial candidates in different parts of the
country that received huge gatherings.

In Matobo, chairman Hon.
Lovemore Moyo addressed over 8 000 people at Maphisa Growth Point and urged
the people to vote for an end to the current crisis that the country is
in.

"We cannot continue to see the country decline like this. We should
all go out in our numbers and vote for jobs, health and education," Hon.
Moyo who is also the MP for Matobo South said.

Other people gathered
at the Maphisa rally were the senatorial candidate for Matobo, Sithembile
Mhlotshwa, parliamentary candidate for Matobo North and 19 council
candidates from the constituency.

The MDC also held rallies in Kuwadzana
East and West constituencies that are being represented by Hon. Nelson
Chamisa and Lucia Matibenga respectively. Other rallies were in Zengeza East
and Dzivarasekwa.

However, an MDC rally that was supposed to be addressed
by President Tsvangirai at Juru Business Centre in Mashonaland East was
cancelled after the police sealed of the place and told people gathered to
disperse as they claimed that the police had not been notified about the
event.

Contrary to these claims, the police in the province had been
notified by the MDC Mashonaland East provincial leadership of the event
seven days before the event in line with the amended Public Order and
Security Act (POSA).

Meanwhile, this weekend, President Tsvangirai
moves his election campaign to White City Stadium in Bulawayo where the City
of Kings is expected to roll into life as the MDC campaign trail holds
another star rally.

Meet the candidates public meetings..march for free and fair elections

03
March 2008

The Association is organizing public meetings that will invite
contesting candidates in the oncoming harmonized elections. The public
meetings are a platform for residents to interrogate would be leaders with a
view to assisting residents to make informed decisions and vote competent
leaders. The meetings will be running in all the 46 wards. Residents are
also informed that due to the delimitation of wards boundaries, there is
likelihood of confusion and chaos during the voting day. It is thus
important for residents to attend these public meetings. They will clarify
on ward boundaries, where to vote and many other enquiries related to
elections. The Association will also run an information center during the
elections to assist residents and also to receive reports of those turned
away, election violence etc. Further details on the public meetings and the
election information center will be available on the CHRA website (www.chra.co.zw) before the end of the
week.

Meanwhile the Associations General Council has resolved to hold a
march for free and fair elections. The march which will be done before the
elections in the city center is meant to conscientise political parties and
activists to desist from violent practices during and after the elections.
CHRA ward committees will also hold their own marches in the communities.
The marches are a campaign for free and fair elections. The police will be
notified of these events. It is important that elections are held in a free
and fair manner so as to restore legitimacy at Town House and on the
government. The elections must be held as stipulated by the SADC protocols
on the holding of free and fair elections.

Zimbabwe Journalists condemn Minister Ndlovu's threats

THE
Zimbabwe Journalists for Human Rights is outraged by the threats issued by
the Information and Publicity Minister Sikhanyiso Ndlovu against the
Financial Gazette over a story that appeared in the financial weekly on
Thursday 21 February 2008.

The Minister's threats arose after the
Financial Gazette reported that several high-profile Zanu PF officials had
been coerced to sign President Mugabe's nomination papers for the Presidency
in the March 29 harmonised elections. We are curious to know why Ndlovu is
so angry with the Financial Gazette on that story. Is there something else
the story insinuates that the public does not know?

According to the
main 8pm news bulletin of the only state broadcaster the Zimbabwe
Broadcasting Holdings (ZBH), Minister Ndlovu revealed that the government
will resort to other means to ensure the Financial Gazette retracts its lead
story on Mugabe. It is this level of intolerance by the regime that this
nation is so polarised since 2000. That explains why the government has said
it will not allow any journalists and observers from 'unfriendly nations',
who ask and document 'unfriendly' truths about the situation in our
country.

The ZJHR has previously viewed Minister Ndlovu as a reasonable
and responsible man who understood the media but now realises that the man
is just as hateful of the truth as his master Robert Mugabe. It is the same
hate language of intimidation and threats that ex-Minister Jonathan Moyo
used against the banned Daily News and its staff that must be a stuck
reminder to all who care to listen that this is a harbinger of worse things
to come ahead of this crucial 29 March vote.

As the nation braces for
the March 29 harmonised elections, the media, particularly the private media
should be mindful of the threats posed to their lives by the desperate
regime that thrives on intimidation and harassment of the messengers of
truth. The ZJHR continues to document all violations against the people in
terms of their rights to information.

The ZJHR is neither deterred nor
intimidated by Minister Ndlovu's threats. We reject any further erosion of
our freedoms as Zimbabwean journalists by curtailing our rights to tell the
story as it is. Minister Ndlovu should demonstrate the same zeal when
dealing with journalists in the employ of the government-controlled
newspapers who daily pour scorn on the opposition leadership and other
private citizens who oppose the regime's economic policies and political
repression.

It is more important at this stage ahead of the election for
the private media to become united and confront the tyranny with one voice
which knows neither fear nor favour.

The ZJHR urges the State to shun
language that fuel hatred against the private media in the run-up to the
harmonised elections. We also ask Minister Ndlovu and his colleagues in
government to desist from issuing reckless statements that further undermine
the media's role in a democracy.

The SADC Energy Ministerial Task Force (EMTF) on
Implementation of Power Sector Programmes convened an emergency meeting at
Boipuso Hall in Gaborone, Botswana on the 21st February 2008. In the absence
of the Chairperson of SADC EMTF, the Minister of Mines and Energy of the
Republic of Namibia, Mr. Erikki Nghimtina, the meeting was Chaired by
Honourable Michael Nyambuya, Minister of Energy and Power Development of the
Republic of Zimbabwe and opened by Honourable P. H. K. Kedikilwe, Minister
of Minerals, Energy and Water Resources, Botswana. The Executive Secretary
of SADC, H.E. Dr. Tomaz Salomao also gave brief remarks on the status of the
power supply situation in the SADC region.

The Ministerial Task Force
meeting was preceded by preparatory meetings of the members of the Southern
African Power Pool (SAPP), the Regional Electricity Regulators Association
(RERA) and other parties on 19th February 2008 and Senior Energy Officials
on 20th February 2008.

The Ministers registered their recognition of
the high electricity demand which has outstripped supply due to, among other
factors, the positive economic growth which averaged about 5% in most of the
SADC Member States and rural electrification projects in most Member
States.

The Ministers noted the current status of power supply within the
region, which has an installed capacity of 54,742 MW of which only 46,391 MW
is available. Although new generation amounting to 1,810 MW has been
commissioned in the region in 2007, the reserve margin is still in deficit
against a required reserve margin of 10.2%. The situation will continue
until 2013 when all planned generation projects are commissioned.

The
Ministers reviewed the status of implementation of SAPP generation,
transmission and interconnector projects which are categorized as
rehabilitation and related infrastructure, short term, medium term and long
term projects. These projects require a total of US$46.4 billion.

In
addition to these projects, the Ministers noted progress made on the Western
Corridor Project (WESTCOR).

The Ministers took cognizance of the proposed
short-term measures being instituted by Member States and SAPP to overcome
the diminished surplus installed capacity and the expected impact of these
measures on the power supply situation. These measures include respective
utilities' short term projects, ESKOM's Recovery plan and power capacity
being availed by Mozambique for export to the rest of the region. The Task
Force noted that ESKOM through the Recovery Plan has achieved a 10% load
reduction in South Africa, a reduction of power supplied through bilateral
contracts by 10% and a saving of 600 MW in ESKOM demand specifically in the
Western Cape. In Mozambique the Ministers noted that HCB has recently
concluded a rehabilitation project on all units, resulting in the
availability of the units increased to 90%, which has released 300MW to be
used on non-firm basis to alleviate the crisis that the region is
facing.

Following the understanding that the SADC region is undergoing a
power emergency situation, the Ministerial Task Force adopted a road map to
accelerate the region's recovery from this power shortage through ensuring
the effective connectivity of the interconnectors, as well as Supply Side
and Demand Side Management initiatives as follows:

· A Power
Conservation Programme (PCP) be formulated and implemented as a SADC
programme

· a SADC policy be developed to ensure efficient use of
electrical energy;

· development of a minimum energy efficiency standard
for all new electrical connections

In addition to the initiatives above, the
Ministerial Task Force noted that an enabling environment is indispensable
to accelerate private sector participation and additional investment in the
power sector. In order to achieve an enabling environment the SAPP
will

i) work towards the harmonization of national electricity policy
frameworks;

iii) develop and
implement the necessary national policies and promulgate legislation that
will ensure:

· promotion of power conservation practices;

·
provide financial and fiscal incentives to the Utilities for Demand-Side
Management (DSM)

iv) adopt and implement principles of cost
reflective tariffs to allow utilities and Independent Power Producers (IPP)
to recover production costs and allow for recapitalization.

The
Ministerial Task Force noted that in addition to the supply side and demand
side issues, the power sector is facing additional challenges in financing
of power projects and institutional arrangements for implementation. The
Ministers therefore agreed on the following actions:

1) Commission a
study to recommend a financing model for cross border projects

2)
SADC/SAPP to assume a direct responsibility for coordinating and monitoring
project implementation

3) Member States should make full use of project
preparation facilities to package projects

4) SADC should follow up
on international pledges made to finance NEPAD regional projects

The
Ministerial Task Force considered and approved structures for implementing
projects, which include SADC Ministers responsible for Energy with ultimate
oversight on the Power Sector Projects Road Map, the Energy Ministerial Task
Force, to review the pace of implementation of projects; the SADC
Secretariat Project Coordination Unit, to be responsible for strategic
coordination of implementation of infrastructure projects, which includes,
project development, packaging, monitoring and reporting process in
conjunction with the Member States, SAPP, RERA and Key International
Partners. Project Teams and Project Steering Committees will undertake day
to day implementation and review of specific projects.

In addition to
the above structures, the Ministerial Task Force agreed to strengthen SAPP
to ensure that it has adequate capacity to facilitate the implementation of
the Roadmap; and RERA to undertake capacity building within the regulatory
and institutional framework to ensure that an enabling environment continues
to obtain. In addition SAPP and RERA was given new mandate to champion
regional power projects in conjunction with Member States.

The
Ministerial Task Force underscored the importance of the proposed measures
as a response to address the emergency situation. They impressed upon the
SADC Secretariat, SAPP and RERA, supported by the utilities and other
cooperating partners, the need to have clear milestones and timeframes for
the proposed measures so that their status of implementation is measurable.
In their reaffirmation for the support for the proposed measures the Task
Force took note of the report of the SADC Secretariat on the Madagascar
Power Sector and that the proposed solutions for Madagascar are very similar
to those made for the rest of the SADC Member States.

The Task Force
noted with appreciation the reassurance by South Africa that she will honour
her contractual obligations with regard to the power supply to the rest of
the region.

In conclusion and following the offer by RSA to host the next
Energy Ministerial Task Force Meeting at a date to be determined during the
SADC Energy Ministers meeting to be held 30th April 2008 in DRC, the
Ministerial Task Force conveyed their appreciation to the People and
Government of Botswana for the conducive environment which led to the
successful outcome of the meeting, the SADC Secretariat and the Ministry of
Minerals, Energy and Water Resources of Botswana for the preparations they
made for the meeting and all the stakeholders for their continued
support.

Mpopoma House of Assembly Member Dies

The Member of the House of Assembly for
Mpopoma Mr Milton Milford Gwetu of the MDC-Mutambara faction has
died.

Mr Gwetu(78) who died at his Mpopoma home yesterday was also the
Professor Arthur Mutambara's faction candidate for Mpopoma-Pelandaba
constituency.

His death came a few days after the faction lost
another candidate, Mr Glory Makwati, who was standing in Gwanda South. The
director of elections in the faction Mr Paul Themba Nyathi, confirmed Mr
Gwetu's death adding that members of his party were in
despair.

"Honourable Gwetu died sometime this morning. He has been unwell
for sometime and was complaining of general tiredness but we never thought
he would die. He was a strong person and we believed he would recover," said
Mr Nyathi. "People in the party are devastated as you know his death comes a
week after the death of (Mr) Glory Makwati (the faction's candidate for
Gwanda South). We will miss him and as you know, there was never a moment
when he was angry with anyone. He will be missed in the party."

Mr
Nyathi described Mr Gwetu as a humble person who took his legislative role
very seriously. "He was one of the Members of Parliament who did a lot of
work in his constituency. He took responsibility, and held report back
meetings with his constituency very, very regularly. He was simple, humble
and a grassroots person," he said.

Mr Nyathi said although his party
was devastated, it would still press ahead with its election campaigns. Mr
Nyathi said his party would nominate candidates to replace the two in
Mpopoma-Pelandaba and Gwanda South constituencies. "We will try to elect
candidates of a similar calibre," he said.

Mr Gwetu was born in the
St Cyprians area of Ntabazinduna on 28 January 1930 and grew up under the
parentage of a devout Anglican family. He completed primary school education
at Tegwani Institute in Bulilima and later proceeded to do Standard 7 at
Indaleni High school in Richmond, Pietermaritzburg in KwaZulu-Natal
Province.

He later enrolled with St Francis College at Marianhill,
Durban, where he did his higher education through the joint Matriculation
Board of Universities of South Africa. Mr Gwetu spent most of his adult life
in the labour movement. He was instrumental in the resuscitation of the
Bulawayo Municipal Workers Union and was its secretary from 1950 to 1952. He
was involved in the labour movement until the formation of the MDC in
1999.

He was elected as the MP for Mpopoma in 2000 and 2005 and was
seeking a third term in the 29 March elections.

Journalists Rescue
Desperate Zimbabwean

Mmegi, Botswana

Monday, 3 March 2008

DAN MOSEKAPHOFUCORRESPONDENT

FRANCISTOWN:
The scene is reminiscent of the biblical story of the troubled traveller who
was receiving a battering from this merciless world. While on his journey
with his soul tormented by his insurmountable problems, the stranger is said
to have found a rock and rested on it.

It was while still
sleeping on this rock that he had a very nice dream. He is said to have
dreamt about heaven. In that dream he was now in heaven and living a
wonderful life with God, the Almighty.

This situation suits the
description of one Singazi Dube of Whange village near Binga in Zimbabwe. We
found him at this rather dangerous spot where innocent people have been
attacked before. He is lying 'lifelessly' on this rock at this place.As
he sees us, he raises his arms and beckons us to come closer to him. We
cannot hear what he is saying. After hesitating for a few minutes, we decide
to take a few steps towards him.

As we approached him, he raises
his arm, a gesture that he is surrendering to us. His red and big eyes are
now fixed on us. He uses the last energy that seems to be left on his rather
pale and weak body to point to his ankles.

We quickly examine his
ankles. His feet are swollen including the ankles. "I need help! I am an
illegal immigrant. I have got no papers," he says as tears flood his
eyes.The man is gasping for air. "I have been walking for the past two days
and sleeping in the bush. I am very hungry. Please help me".

These
are the only few words he can utter.We looked at him and at each other
before we decided on an emergency plan to help this innocent soul. We whisk
him away to a nearby restaurant and buy food for him. We have to be more
than patient as we walk him to the car.

The man can hardly walk.After
enjoying the meal, Dube is now back to life and begins to narrate his
ordeal. "I have been walking for the past two days from Plumtree in
Zimbabwe. I am en route to Mmopane near Gaborone.

When I was deported
last time I left my clothes and my money there. I want to go and collect
them," he begins his story.Dube reveals that the walking has to be done
throughout the day and mostly in the bush. "I had to cover a reasonable
distance during the day and have a rest at night," he says.He also
discloses that at night he just slept in the bush. " At night I just find
somewhere to sleep in the bush.

I just sprawl on the ground.
Unfortunately due to darkness, at times one falls on thorny shrubs. But that
will be one of those unfortunate incidents," he explains, as he showed his
mutilated skin.

His skin bears testimony to his words. It is a body
that is full of wounds and scratches. His hands are as hard as a rock. They
also have scratches and scars. But for him, the struggle
continues.

Dube explains that he never thought of the danger that the
bush presents particularly at night due to the presence of wild animals and
snakes. "I never thought of that, my friend. I had to stay focused on my
objective, which is to reach my destination. I just put my trust on the Lord
and find solace on my name Singazi that means 'We don't know' in
English.

"I simply conclude that it is only God who knows about what
will eventually happen to me. If he decides to end my life through
snakebite or an attack from a wild animal, let it be.

I always say a
short prayer for God to protect me so that I may see the next day".He
also reveals that the only thing that worries him is the fact that
temperatures drop significantly low in the wee hours of the morning. "It
gets dangerously cold at around 2am,"

he says, as he coughs a bit
perhaps a sign that the body can no longer afford another day in the
open.He reveals that some of the challenges that confront him on his
ambitious journey are the different treatment that he receives from those he
comes into contact with.

"At times I am forced to 'trespass' into
some homestead to ask for water to drink. Others give me water while for
others I become a source of irritation. Some set their dogs on me as they
chase me out of their compounds. They say they don't want to talk to
Zimbabweans. I have to run for my dear life.

But I understand their
frustrations in the midst of increasing crime rate levels in this country,"
he says.Dube says he decided to rest at this place because his left leg was
now painful. "This leg forced me to temporarily suspend my journey so as to
let it recover. I have used all my pain killers," he showed me the empty
plastic that contained the painkillers, his only possession during his
journey.

He also reveals that initially when he first saw us, he was
scared to death and just decided to give up on life. "I simply told myself
that this marks my demise. I silently called to God to accept my soul. I
simply declared that: 'Let this rock be a standing reminder of or monument
in memory of the son of Dube'," he said with tears streaming down his
face.

Dube asked us to surrender him to the nearest police station.
"I have no choice gentlemen. May be the police will take me to the
hospital," he declared optimistically.He went on to express his
gratitude for the help that we offered to him. "Your arrival here was a real
blessing for me.

I was going to die from hunger," he says, as he claps
his hands in appreciation."I have never been in contact with journalists
before. I will never forget what you have done for me, guys. May the Lord
bless you," he says.We finally took Dube to the Francistown Police station.
As we say our goodbyes to Dube, my heart bleeds.

"Some people are
really suffering in this world," my colleague sums up the whole episode as
we leave the police station.

Archbishop Ncube a victim of Zimbabwe's
Mugabe

Religious Intelligence

Monday, 3rd March 2008. 5:37pm

By: Manasseh
Zindo.

PIUS Ncube is widely believed in Zimbabwe and around the
African continent to be the latest victim of the dirty tricks of President
Robert Mugabe's regime being orchestrated by the most feared Central
Intelligence Organization (CIO).

Archbishop Ncube, who recently
resigned as head of the Catholic Church of Bulawayo, Zimbabwe's second
largest city, has been a vocal critic of Mugabe's regime. Pope Benedict XVI
accepted Ncube's request to step down and the archbishop emeritus has gone
into private life.

In July 2007, Archbishop Ncube called for
foreign intervention to remove President Mugabe, a call analysts described
as a bold statement in Mugabe's Zimbabwe. A week after the statement, the
former prelate called President Robert Mugabe a "megalomaniac, a bully and a
murderer". Barely two weeks after that, state media gleefully published
photos, allegedly of the archbishop in bed with a married
woman.

Archbishop Pius denied the allegation, but whatever the
truth, the scandal led to his resignation, with the husband of the
implicated woman suing Ncube for damages. Many believe that those who
orchestrated the scandal succeeded in ruining the career of man who had
dedicated his life to serving the people of Zimbabwe. "The CIO manufactured
all that," says Tendai Biti, secretary general of one faction of the
opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC). "He fought the regime and
the regime fought back."

Archbishop Ncube himself has talked of the
crude machinations of a wicked regime but vows: "I will not be silenced".
The BBC's Joseph Winter says that Ncube, however, has lost his job and it
remains to be seen whether his voice will carry the same influence without
the backing of such an influential post.

One strong member of
the National Constitutional Assembly, which campaigns for political reform
in Zimbabwe, Mr Lovemore Madhuku, says that as soon as you stand up and
criticize the government, you are taking a huge risk. "Opposition activists
have been beaten up, tortured and even killed but CIO agents also employs
subtler methods, such as those many believe were used against Bishop Ncube.
They are very clever," he says. "They cannot force you to have an affair but
they study you, so they can take advantage of your weakness."

"They visit your husband, or your wife, or your workplace and try to
interfere in your day-to-day life," Madhuku told the BBC News website. He
says that other favoured methods are to entrap businesspeople into doing
something illegal, like dealing in foreign currency. They then keep this
information and use it against you when they judge the time is right,
blackmailing you into giving up politics.

According to Mr
Madhuku, CIO agents have repeatedly gone to the University of Zimbabwe,
where he works in the law faculty, to try to get him sacked. He says they
have successfully managed to stop him taking a high-profile role in his
Church.

The CIO reports directly to the office of the President and
agents are selected on the basis of their loyalty to Mr Robert Mugabe and
his ZANU-PF party. It has a massive budget despite Zimbabwe's economic
hardship, access to latest technology and a massive network of informers.
"You don't know who you're talking to, who you can trust," Mr Biti told the
BBC. He talked of how the CIO has infiltrated every structure of every
organization in the country, with opposition parties the first in their
firing line.

Two years ago, the Movement of Democratic Change
(MDC), which has presented Mr Mugabe with its strongest challenge since he
led Zimbabwe to independence in 1980, split into two factions, making it far
less effective. Many see this as another CIO coup. Mr Madhuku alleges that
their agents infiltrated the highest levels of the party and successfully
played on the egos of top MDC officials to engineer a split.

Although the government denied involvement at the time of split in MDC, it
was not the first time that MDC leader Morgan Tsvangirai had been
targeted.

In the days leading to the 2002 presidential
election, Mr Tsvangirai was charged with treason, based on evidence of Ari
Ben-Menashe, a Canada-based political consultant. He testified that in a
secretly-filmed meeting in December 2001, the MDC leader had arranged the
assassination of President Robert Mugabe. As evidence, he produced a grainy
recording but on that occasion, the CIO's standards had slipped and it was
obvious that the clip had been edited in an amateurish attempt to fix
incriminating words into Tsvangirai's mouth. Their plan failed, and for
whatever reason, Mr Tsvangirai was acquitted.

Morgan Tsvangirai
was not the first opposition leader to be tried for treason on spurious
grounds in Zimbabwe. The Rev Ndabaningi Sithole, Mr Mugabe's rival for more
than 20 years, always claimed that he had been set up when he was charged
with trying to assassinate Mr Mugabe in 1997. The Rev Sithole was found
guilty and was sentenced to two-and-a-half years in prison, although he
died, aged 80, before serving any term.

Prior to the treason
charges, another CIO ploy to discourage one of the only two opposition MPs
at the time, had been to show Rev Sithole a document allegedly showing that
his wife was having an affair with a government minister.

Lovemore Madhuku says such petty interference, as much as the threat of
physical violence, is why many ordinary Zimbabweans have decide not to get
involved in politics, despite the country's economic collapse.

Mr
Tendai Biti of MDC says President Mugabe owes his position to dirty tricks
and his craftsmen who invent them. "They are the real brains of this
regime."

Zimbabwe Justice Ministry Vetting Applications By Election
Observers

VOA

By Jonga Kandemiiri Washington 03 March
2008

The Zimbabwe Election Support Network said Monday
that it is submitting applications for election observers to the Ministry of
Justice, which has taken the responsibility for clearing applications by
domestic observers before they can be processed by the Zimbabwe Electoral
Commission, nominally the authority in this domain.

Though the
commission issues observer permits, Justice Minister Patrick Chinamasa,
senior negotiator for the ruling ZANU-PF party in the South African-mediated
crisis resolution talks which dead-ended earlier this year, was quoted in
the state-run Herald newspaper this weekend laying out the procedure for
applications.

The election support network said it will draw observers
from its membership, which includes a number of civil society
organizations.

The South African-based Electoral Institution of Southern
Africa has sought permission to send observers, but a spokesman for the
group said it awaits a response from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. That
ministry is also considering an application from the Parliamentary Forum of
the Southern African Development Community, whose application to send
observers to 2005 general elections was turned down.

An Electoral
Commission official, speaking on condition of anonymity, declined to say if
any observers have been accredited as of Monday, stating only that the
process is open until March 29, the day of the presidential, general and
local elections.

Election Support Network Chairman Noel Kututwa told
reporter Jonga Kandemiiri that his organization will face major difficulties
if its observer applications are rejected.

Law Society Of Zimbabwe Rejects State Allegations Of Political
Agenda

The Law Society of Zimbabwe on Monday rejected the
accusation by a minister that it is an opposition political body working
with the West to bring down the government.

The state-controlled
Herald newspaper on the weekend reported charges by Justice Minister Patrick
Chinamasa to that effect. The pro-government Sunday Mail said the Law
Society wants to observe the elections on behalf of the European
Union.

Law Society President Beatrice Mtetwa told reporter Patience
Rusere of VOA's Studio 7 for Zimbabwe that the government wants to divide
its membership because it has been outspoken on the breakdown of the rule of
law in the country.